# Bone Marrow

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bone-marrow/330215>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 9, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bone-marrow/330215 "2005-11-09T15:28:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ImaginalDisc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e57/32.png) [@ImaginalDisc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ImaginalDisc)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bone-marrow/330215/1 "2005-11-09T15:28:44Z")

</div>

Hello everyone,

I’m new here, so of course, I have a strange question. The bone I have to pick is namely, marrow. Is bone marrow found in all vertebrates? Since bone marrow in humans is a collection of stem cells (amoung other things), that perform a variety of taks, where is the bone marrow in a cetacean, snakes and eels found? The first group has prescious few long bones, and the second two don’t have any.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bone-marrow/330215/2 "2005-11-10T03:01:56Z")

</div>

> [@ImaginalDisc](#):
>
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I’m new here, so of course, I have a strange question. The bone I have to pick is namely, marrow. Is bone marrow found in all vertebrates? Since bone marrow in humans is a collection of stem cells (amoung other things), that perform a variety of taks, where is the bone marrow in a cetacean, snakes and eels found? The first group has prescious few long bones, and the second two don’t have any.

I’d hazard a guess that any animal that has a circulating blood system with oxygen in it needs RBC, and therefor marrow.

This link shows doctors removing marrow from rats, mice, dogs, and monkeys. Not the entire animal kingdom, but a fair representation

> **[Differential analysis of animal bone marrow by flow cytometry - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1451595/?dopt=Abstract)**
>
> A simple procedure was developed for rapid analysis of animal bone marrow by flow cytometry using the lipophilic cationic dye 3,3'-dihexyloxacarbocyanine iodide \[DiOC6(3)\]. The batch process allows differentiation of bone marrow cells into lymphoid,...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bone-marrow/330215/3 "2005-11-10T11:36:32Z")

</div>

Just because it’s mainly the long bones in humans that make marrow doesn’t mean it’s limited to long bones in _all_ critters with skeletons.

Ribs and vertebrae also contain marrow, just not as much by volume as, say, the average femur. Snakes have _lots_ of ribs, so they may make up in quantity what they lack in quality marrow-bones.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bone-marrow/330215/4 "2005-11-10T16:04:40Z")

</div>

The spleen and liver can also produce blood cells. That’s what provides red blood cells in the fetus before the long bones develop. In some species, these organs remain the main source of blood components.