Bone – being one of the most resistant materials to the process of fossilisation – often preserves internal detail, which allows the histology and growth of the scales to be studied in detail. The scales consist of a non-growing "crown" composed of dentine, with a sometimes-ornamented enameloid upper surface and an aspidine (acellular bony tissue) base. Its growing base is made of cell-free bone, which sometimes developed anchorage structures to fix it in the side of the fish. Beyond that, there appear to be five types of bone-growth, which may represent five natural groupings within the thelodonts – or a spectrum ranging between the end members, meta- (or ortho-) dentine and mesodentine tissues. Each of the five scale morphs appears to resemble the scales of more derived groupings of fish, suggesting that thelodont groups may have been stem groups to succeeding clades of fish.