The alligator and its alliesReese, A. M. (Albert Moore)
Science
The alligator and its allies
Reese, A. M. (Albert Moore)
Alligators
“The head-fold rapidly increases in depth and prominence, as shown in
Figure 3, which is a ventral view a few hours later [than the preceding
stage]. The time cannot be given exactly, as it is found that eggs of
the same nest are not equally advanced when laid, and differ in their
rate of development. The lighter curve in front of the head-fold is the
beginning of the anterior fold of the amnion. The notochord has been
rapidly forming, and now shows very distinctly on the ventral side,
when viewed by transmitted light. A dorsal view of the same embryo
(Fig. 3_a_) shows that the medullary or neural groove is appearing, and
that it ends abruptly anteriorly near the large transverse head-fold.
Posteriorly it terminates at the thickened area in front of the
blastopore, which still remains open.”
Figures 3_b_-_m_ are drawn from transsections of an embryo of about
this stage of development. For a short distance in front of the
beginning of the head-fold, there is a mass of cells of considerable
thickness between the ectoderm and entoderm. In Figure 3_b_ these cells
appear as an irregular thickening of the entoderm, while in Figure 3_c_
they form a continuous mass, uniting the upper and lower germ layers.
This condition is seen, though in a much less striking degree, in the
following stage of development. As to its significance the writer is
not prepared to decide.
Figure 3_d_ passes through the head-fold, which in this embryo
was probably not so far developed as it was in the embryo shown in
Figures 3 and 3_a_. Not having seen the embryo, however, before it was
sectioned, the writer cannot be certain of this point. The ectoderm and
entoderm are here of nearly the same thickness.
Figure 3_e_ is a short distance posterior to the preceding. It shows a
marked thickening of the ectoderm in the medial region (_ec_), which is
continuous posteriorly with the anterior ends of the medullary folds
that are just beginning to differentiate (Figs. 3_f_-_h_).
Figure 3_g_ passes through the anterior end of the medullary plate
or folds (_mf_), whichever they may be called. The ectoderm of the
folds is thickened and is considerably elevated above the rest of the
blastoderm. There is scarcely any sign, in this region, of a medullary
groove. The entoderm (_en_) is considerably thickened in the medial
region, this thickening being continuous posteriorly, as in the
preceding stage, with the mesoderm.
In Figure 3_h_, cut in a plane at some distance posterior to the
preceding, the medullary groove (_mg_) is well marked; its bordering
folds gradually thin out laterally to the thickness of the ordinary
ectoderm. The medial thickening of the entoderm is very marked, but it
has not in this region separated into a distinct mesoblastic layer.
Immediately under the medullary groove is a dense mass of cells
(_nt_), apparently the anterior end of the notochord in process of
formation.
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