In the development of vertebrate animals, the functional matrix hypothesis is a phenomenological description of bone growth. It proposes that "the origin, development and maintenance of all skeletal units are secondary, compensatory and mechanically obligatory responses to temporally and operationally prior demands of related functional matrices."Salentijn, L. Functional anatomy of the head and neck, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine post-graduate dental lecture series, 2009
The fundamental basis for this hypothesis, laid out by Columbia anatomy professor Melvin Moss is that bones do not grow but are grown,Fonseca, Raymond J. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Volume 6, p 246. thus stressing the ontogenetic primacy of function over form. This is in contrast to the current conventional scientific wisdom that genetic, rather than epigenetic (non-genetic) factors, control such growth.
The theory was introduced as a chapter in a dental textbook in 1962.New York Times Dr. Melvin Moss, 83, Theorist on How Bones of Face Grow, Is Dead, June 29, 2006
See also Wolff's law Theories of Craniofacial Growth
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