Buttons in bovine carcass terminology are dorsal cartilaginous tips that help estimate the animal’s age. Which option best defines Buttons?

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Age estimation in bovine carcasses uses specific skeletal features that change with age. Buttons are the dorsal cartilaginous tips on the thoracic vertebrae. These cartilage tips progressively ossify and become more pronounced as the animal ages, providing a rough indicator of age at slaughter. The other terms refer to different structures: vertebral bodies are the main bone segments of the vertebrae, dorsal thoracic vertebral processes are the spinous processes, and air cells are unrelated air-filled spaces. Therefore, the best definition is that buttons are the dorsal cartilaginous tips that help estimate the animal’s age.