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The Chondrocranium of Gegenophis (Apoda, Amphibia)
Author(s) -
Ramaswami L. S.
Publication year - 1948
Publication title -
proceedings of the zoological society of london
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0370-2774
DOI - 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1948.tb00404.x
Subject(s) - anatomy , premaxilla , maxilla , ossification , biology
Summary. Of the stages of Ichthyophis studied for comparison, ossification has just started in an embryo of 45 mm. length. The maxilla and palatine are separate; the pleurosphenoid has not united with the parasphenoid, and the occipital region is still cartilaginous. Obviously, there is no “fusion primordiale” of the bones, and, as Marcus, Stimmelmayr and Porsch (1935) have described in Hypogeophis, these bones appear independently in Ichthyophis and fuse later. In the 78 mm. larva of Ichthyophis glutinosus examined, the maxilla is still separate from the palatine, while the pleurosphenoid has united with the bony otic capsule, but the parasphenoid is still independent. I am unable to say if in Gegenophis, the bones (nasal, septomaxilla, premaxilla) appear independently in stages earlier than the one examined by me, viz., 51 mm. and then fuse.