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Pigment pattern formation in larval ambystomatid salamanders: Ambystoma tigrinum tigrinum
Author(s) -
Olsson Lennart,
Löfberg Jan
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.1052110109
Subject(s) - biology , ambystoma mexicanum , chromatophore , caudata , melanophore , larva , pigment , zoology , anatomy , microbiology and biotechnology , ecology , regeneration (biology) , genetics , organic chemistry , chemistry , axolotl
We have begun a comparative study of pigment patterns and their mechanisms of formation in ambystomatid salamanders in an attempt to elucidate the evolution of these traits in this family. In Ambystoma t. tigrinum , the migration of the prospective pigment cells was followed by using scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy combined with markers (dopa incubation for detecting melanophores, ammonia‐induced pterin fluorescence for detecting xanthophores). The pigment pattern resulting from the cell migration shares features both with the alternating vertical xanthophore and melanophore bars of A. mexicanum and the horizontal stripes of certain salamandrids and ambystomatids. The pigment pattern of A. t. tigrinum is interpreted here as an intermediate evolutionary step between a primitive horizontal stripe pattern and a derived vertical bar pattern. The initiation of pigment pattern formation resembles the situation in A. mexicanum , probably reflecting the close phylogenetic relationship between the two taxa.