The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 08 (of 10)Gadow, Hans
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 08 (of 10)
Gadow, Hans
Animals
In the Anura the gills are complicated, owing to the development of the
so-called internal gills. First appear, exactly in the same way as in the
Urodela, the external gills, one upon each of the first three branchial
arches. In the larva of _Rana esculenta_, 5 mm. in length, a little
protuberance appears upon the first, {43}and then upon the second arch. In
the 6 mm. larva the first gill shows four knobs, the second two, the third
one knob. They are always delicate and thin, although sometimes pigmented,
long, and much-ramified structures. The first pair is always the largest;
well developed and persisting a long time in _Rana temporaria_; smaller in
_R. esculenta_ and _Bufo vulgaris_; very short, scarcely forked, in _B.
viridis_ and _Hyla arborea_. They are relatively largest in _Alytes_, while
still in the egg. Numerous descriptions of these gills will be found in the
systematic part.
Great changes take place about the time when the fourth or last branchial
arch and the pulmonary arteries are developed. This occurs in _R.
esculenta_ when the larva is about 9 mm. long. The sprouting of the gills
extends gradually downwards along the arches upon their ventral halves, and
these new gill-filaments or loops transform themselves into numerous
dendritic bundles, resting in several thickset rows upon the hinder margin
of the first to the third arch, one row only on the fourth arch, which
carries no external gill. These "internal gills" look like red bolsters or
thick and short-tasselled bunches. Whilst they are developing the dorsal,
older gills become arrested in their growth and disappear, and at the same
time a right and left opercular fold grows out from the head and covers
these new gills, shutting them up in an outer branchial chamber, just like
that of Teleostei and other Tectobranch fishes. This is the reason why
these new gills have been called internal, and the mistaken notion has
sprung up that they are comparable with the true internal gills of fishes.
In reality Amphibia have only external gills. They are always covered by
ectoderm, are restricted to the outside of the branchial arches, and are
developed before the formation of the clefts. These gills are in many cases
directly continuous with the more dorsally and more superficially placed
earlier external gills; but although nearly every one who has studied their
development has observed this agreement, the old error still prevails. They
are morphologically as little internal as the true internal gills of
Elasmobranch embryos are external gills, because these have become so
elongated that they protrude out of the gill-clefts.
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