In Stockwell and Scott's commentary on our papers, in which we concluded from a significant mass of data (a fraction of which was presented in the paper) that we questioned the notion of ‘global patterns’ of matrix distributions within articular cartilage. In part, this was based on the distribution of keratan sulphate and chondroitin sulphate within the knee (both tibial and femoral compartments although only the latter was illustrated in the paper when referring to adult animals) of our model, the marsupial Monodelphis domestica.