New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
The principal caudal fin ray count - a fundamental character in the
galaxioid fishes
R. M. MCDOWALL
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research
P.O. Box 8602
Christchurch, New Zealand
email: R.McDowall@niwa.cri.nz
Abstract The principal caudal rays, usually defined as the
two largest segmented unbranched fin rays in the caudal fin that lie above and
below, and the segmented branched caudal rays that they enclose, have a
consistent relationship to the caudal skeleton in galaxioid fishes, being those
fin rays supported by the primitively ventral surface of elements in the caudal
skeleton. They comprise rays supported by skeletal elements including, and
posterior to, the parhypural and hypurals. The most anterior (or ventral)
principal ray is supported by the parhypural while the posterior (or uppermost)
principal ray lies immediately below the point at which the notochord emerges
from the truncated posterior end of the last caudal vertebra. The consistent
relationship to these skeletal elements suggests that the principal caudal fin
ray count is a character of fundamental nature for the galaxioid fishes, giving
it particular phylogenetic significance in that group.
Keywords Galaxiidae; Retropinnidae; principal caudal fin rays
Z01030
Received 7 March 2001; accepted 30 July 2001
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2001, Vol. 28: 395-405
0301-4223/01/2804-0395 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New
Zealand 2001
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (944K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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