 The study found that hypertrophic chondrocytes can survive beyond terminal differentiation and give rise to a progeny of osteoblasts participating in endocondral bone formation. This suggests that there may be two distinct paths for the production of endocondral bone, one involving pericondrial cells and another involving hypertrophic chondrocytes. This article was authored by John Park, Matthias Gebhart, Svitlana Golovchenko, and others.