I found sitting in the muscles of a cooked cutlass fish three roughly bean-shaped hard capsules (the biggest one a bit more than 1 cm long) that I could not identify. As far as I could tell, they seem to be outgrowths from the bones that connect the vertebrae to the fin (probably the proximal pterygiophore) as they have little bony spikes on both ends where they seem to have been attached. The material feels like bone. The capsule are somewhat irregular in shape with a seam or groove running along the side and seem to have a tiny pore (see pictures).
The closest I could find in a Google search was articles about ectopic-bone encapsulated trematode metacercariae in yellow perch. But those were much smaller.
If you have seen anything like the described structures and/or knows what they are, I would be glad to know about it.
Hi Ulrich, these are swollen (hyperostotic) pterygiophores, which are common in cutlassfish; see for example :
https://www.aiep.pl/volumes/2010/3_3/pdf/07_1292_F1.pdf
Dear Ulrich
The structures you have seen are hyperostotic bones usually found in certain fish species. Their position is interesting as they vary between species. Also, their size and shape.
Do you have images of these structures before removing them from their location in the muscles?
I published several papers on the hyperostotic bones and here I attach a copy of these papers.
Laith A.Jawad
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Immunology