Abstract
FOR some years now it has been known that the environmental conditions during the development of the fish embryo may exert an influence leading to the number of vertebræ of the offspring becoming different from the number in the parents. Very few experiments, however, have been made on this subject, which is of considerable interest both from the systematic point of view and in the use of racial investigations in applied fishery biology. On earlier occasions, for example, in Nature and elsewhere1, I have referred to some experiments on the sea-trout dealing with this matter. On exposing the developing eggs to varied influences, especially by changing the temperature, we succeeded in determining the period when the temperature had a special effect on the number of vertebræ found later in the fry. The embryo was specially sensitive during a fairly short period, which was called the supersensitive period. A temperature-change of no great amount (3-6° C.) could in this period produce a difference of about 1.5 vertebræ, which is regarded as a great difference when found in so-called races of fish in Nature.
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References
Tåning, Medd. Komm. Danmarks Fiskeri- og Havunders., Fiskeri, 11, 3 (1944); Nature, 157, 594 (1946).
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TÅKING, Å. Influence of the Environment on Number of Vertebræ in Teleostean Fishes. Nature 165, 28 (1950). https://doi.org/10.1038/165028a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/165028a0
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