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On Relative Growth in the Jaws of Certain Fishes.
Author(s) -
Needham A. E.
Publication year - 1935
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.1469-7998.1935.tb06263.x
Subject(s) - biology , growth rate , adaptation (eye) , annual growth % , zoology , anatomy , mathematics , geometry , botany , neuroscience
Summary.1 In Lepidosteus osseus growth of the jaws relative to the rest of the body is of the type termed heterogonic. 2 There are two quite distinct periods in this growth, both showing heterogony, the growth coefficient being much higher over the first than over the second period. 3 The growth of the jaws relative to the rest of the body in Belone and Hemirhamphus is essentially similar to that of Lepidosteus , with the same two periods of heterogonic growth. 4 The difference in growth‐rate between the two periods may possibly be correlated, on the one hand with differences in the histology of the growing jaws, and on the other with larval adaptation. 5 In certain cases, for example Hemirhamphus far and Polyodon spathula , it is conceivable that growth essentially similar in nature to the preceding examples is masked on a log/log graph by a prolonged transition period between the two phases of heterogonic growth. 6 In B. vulgaris both jaws show the two periods, but with considerable differences between their respective growth coefficients, producing an initial lag in the upper jaw and a later compensation.