Lateral, anterior and posterior Fontanelles, which are gapes in the skull of catfishes, covered by tough membrane, what are the functions of these gaps?
Dear Eman,
About what catfishes are you talking? Some catfishes has two cranial fontanelles, others have only one, others have none.
Regards,
Gloria Arratia
Dear Gloria, thank you for your response, I would like to understand the function of the catfishes fontanelles in general, and the Nile-catfishes in particular, I have been studied four families Bagridae (B. bajad); Clariidae (C. garpineus); Malapteruridae (M. electricus) and Mochokidae (S. schall), J. Morphol. Sci., 2014, vol. 31, no. 3, p. 162-170, http://dx.doi.org/10.4322/jms.059913. The text below, for you, repeated my question as described in the discussion section:
Our results revealed that, the anterior fontanelle was
present in the four studied species; while the posterior one
was absent in M.electricusand S.schall. Adriaens and Verraes
(1998) reported that, the posterior fontanelle also known as
the parietal foramen, exposed pineal gland to direct sun light.
In S.schall a third paired and small fontanelle was present, the
lateral fontanelle. It is located between sphenotic, pterotic
and posttemporo-supracliethrum bones, in this position it
resembled the sphenoidal fontanelles of mammales, which
located between the sphenoid, parietal, temporal and frontal
bones (HOLLINSHEAD and ROSSE, 1985) in man and
(SCHALLER, 2011) in dog. The question raised here is
why catfishes has such fontanelles, Artenerr, Pekney and
Gergelova (2003) reported that, in man the fontanelles
provide two important functions, First, they provide space
between the bones and make the newly born skull flexible
during the childbirth. Second, they support the fast growth
by their expansions. We suggest that, the fontanelles make
the roof of the skull flexible especially during expansion
phase of suction feeding, as their edges may adduct then
raising the floor of the neurocranium to increase the width
of the oropharyngeal cavity.
Thank you very much, I am looking forward to hear from you.
Dear Eman,
Thank you very much for your explanation. As I see the situation, but I can be wrong, you want to understand the function of the fontanelles in catfishes, but as I wrote you in my first mail, you can find three conditions in catfishes (as well as in other teleosts): two, one, and no fontanelles in the median region of the skull roof. Thus, cranial fontanelles are not limited only to catfishes. However, if we want to limit the discussion only about catfishes, then two hypotheses have being proposed, the one from Adriaens & Verraes (1998) for the posterior fontanelle and your hypothesis that these spaces are functionally related to feeding mechanism. But a problem remain: how do we explain the lack of these fontanelles in some catfishes? I think that you have a very interesting question and I suggest testing these hypotheses experimentally for both situations: presence and absences of fontanelles.
With my best wishes,
Gloria
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Membranes