Complete bone regeneration following appendage amputation is remarkably efficient in zebrafish, but does not occur in mammals. Both groups, however, can repair bone fractures to varying extents, but whether a conserved cellular mechanism underpins both bone regeneration and repair in the adult zebrafish remains unclear. It is also unclear whether new tissue can be generated in other bony structures apart from the fin. In this issue (p. 2225) Gilbert Weidinger and colleagues develop two new models of zebrafish bone repair in fin and in skull, and use these to investigate the mechanism by which bone is repaired. Their findings reveal that, like complete bone regeneration, bone repair in both models involves dedifferentiation of mature osteoblasts followed by proliferation, migration to the injury site and redifferentiation to form new bone. Using live fluorescent reporter-based imaging the authors are able to observe osteoblast differentiation dynamics, and confirm via lineage tracing that mature osteoblasts do indeed contribute to the formation of new bone following injuries in both the fin and the skull.