“…Bone is not homogeneous in material composition, and consideration of the heterogeneous distribution of material stiffness in bone will presumably lead to improved understanding of biomechanical performance. Existence of stiffness variation in mandibular bone is well established (e.g., Daegling, Granatosky, & McGraw, ; Daegling, Hotzman, McGraw, & Rapoff, ; Dechow & Hylander, ; Rapoff et al, ; Schwartz‐Dabney & Dechow, ; Wang et al, ). It is clear that the structural integrity of bone is influenced by its macrostructural properties (e.g., cortical thickness and trabecular density) and its microstructural properties (e.g., porosity, secondary bone distribution), such that an assumption of homogeneity yields an inaccurate assessment of structural stiffness (e.g., Augat & Schorlemmer, ; Bhatavadekar et al, ; Fratzl, Gupta, Fischer, & Kolednik, ; Harrison et al, ; Jaasma, Bayraktar, Niebur, & Keaveny, ; MacNeil & Boyd, ; Rapoff et al, ; Rho, Zioupos, Currey, & Pharr, ; Roy, Rho, Tsui, Evans, & Pharr, ; Sansalone et al, ; Wachter et al, ).…”