The Vertebrate SkeletonReynolds, Sidney H. (Sidney Hugh)
Science
The Vertebrate Skeleton
Reynolds, Sidney H. (Sidney Hugh)
Skeleton
The pectoral fins of Elasmobranchs vary very much in their mode of
attachment. In some of the sharks, including the Notidanidae and
_Scyllium_, all three basalia articulate with the pectoral girdle,
while in others such as _Cestracion_ the meta-pterygium is excluded.
In Rays the propterygium and the meta-pterygium are long and narrow
and diverge much from one another; other basalia work their way in
between the meso-pterygium and meta-pterygium, and come to articulate
with the pectoral girdle. Sometimes they fuse and form a second
meso-pterygium. The radiale are greatly elongated and are segmented.
In _Chimaera_ all three basalia are present, but the meso-pterygium
is shifted and does not articulate with the pectoral girdle[49].
In _Acipenser_ and _Polyodon_ the pectoral fin is built on the same
type as in Elasmobranchs, but becomes modified from the fact that the
propterygium is replaced by dermal bone which forms a large =marginal
ray=. Extra meso-pterygia are formed in the same way as in Rays.
In _Polypterus_ the pro-and meta-pterygia have ossified while the
meso-pterygium remains chiefly cartilaginous; the fin-rays are also
chiefly ossified.
In _Amia_, _Lepidosteus_, and certain Teleosteans like _Salmo_, not
only the propterygium but the meso-pterygium is almost suppressed by
the marginal ray.
In the great majority of Teleosteans a still further stage is reached,
the endoskeletal elements, the basalia and radiale are almost entirely
suppressed and the fin comes to consist entirely of ossified fin-rays
of dermal origin.
In some Teleosteans--_Exocaetus_, a herring, and _Dactylopterus_, a
gurnard--the pectoral fins are so enormously developed that by means
of them the fish is able to fly through the air for considerable
distances. The skeleton of these great fins is almost entirely
composed of dermal bone.
PELVIC FIN.
The pelvic fin is almost always further removed from the
archipterygial condition, and is in general more modified than is the
pectoral. Thus in the Ichthyotomi, while the pectoral fins are
archipterygia similar to those of _Ceratodus_, the pelvic fins consist
of an axis bearing rays on the postaxial side only, and prolonged
distally into a clasper. In Dipnoi however the pelvic fins are very
similar to the pectoral. In Elasmobranchs the meso-pterygium is
missing, the propterygium is small or absent, and the fin is mainly
composed of the meta-pterygium (generally called basi-pterygium) and
its radiale. The males in Elasmobranchii and Holocephali have the
distal end of the meta-pterygium prolonged into a clasper.
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