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Comparative morphology of caecilian sperm (Amphibia: Gymnophiona)
Author(s) -
Wake Marvalee H.
Publication year - 1994
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.1052210303
Subject(s) - biology , morphology (biology) , sperm , zoology , morphological analysis , taxon , phylogenetic tree , anatomy , ecology , botany , biochemistry , artificial intelligence , computer science , gene
The morphology of mature sperm from the testes of 22 genera and 29 species representing all five families of caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) was examined at the light microscope level in order to: (1) determine the effectiveness of silver‐staining techniques on long‐preserved, rare material, (2) assess the comparative morphology of sperm quantitatively, (3) compare patterns of caecilian sperm morphology with that of other amphibians, and (4) determine if sperm morphology presents any characters useful for systematic analysis. Although patterns of sperm morphology are quite consistent intragenerically and intrafamilially, there are inconsistencies as well. Two major types of sperm occur among caecilians: those with very long heads and pointed acrosomes, and those with shorter, wider heads and blunt acrosomes. Several taxa have sperm with undulating membranes on the flagella, but limitations of the technique likely prevented full determination of tail morphology among all taxa. Cluster analysis is more appropriate for these data than is phylogenetic analysis. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.