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. 2023 Dec 1;154(6):3526–3542. doi: 10.1121/10.0022565

FIG. 4.

FIG. 4.

LL scales on the trunk of teleost fishes. (A) SEM of the developing trunk canal in the convict cichlid, Amatitlania nigrofasciata (=Archocentrus nigrofasciatus). Two LL scales prior to enclosure of tubular canal segment (pcn, presumptive canal neuromasts), scale bar = 100 μm; (B) Close-up of a presumptive canal neuromast as in (A); double-headed arrow indicates the axis of best physiological sensitivity of hair cells, scale bar = 10 μm; (C) SEM of two LL scales after canal segments have formed, with additional superficial neuromasts (sn) on the skin, scale bar = 1 mm; and (D) anterior end of the trunk canal (just caudal to operculum, op) showing several overlapping scales, scale bar = 1 mm; (E) Schematic of overlapping LL scales (based on ten species of pomacentrids, embiotocids, and pleuronectids). LL scales (black) sit beneath the epidermis (gray) at a shallow angle in the dermis (light gray). Tubular canal segments (see shaded tubes ending in dotted lines) form a continuous, epithelium-lined canal that runs parallel to the skin surface. The infrascalar and suprascalar pores [right and left, respectively, in two scales depicted three-dimensionally (3-D)] are represented by dashed lines. Rostral to left. Abbreviations: llc, LL canal; m, trunk muscle; n, canal neuromast; p, pore (small circles); plln, posterior LL nerve; s, scale. (A)–(D) Modified from Webb, J. F., Maruska, K. P., Butler, J. M., and Schwalbe, M. A. B. (2021). “The mechanosensory lateral line system of cichlid fishes: From anatomy to behavior,” in The Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of Cichlid Fishes, edited by M. E. Abate and D. L. G. Noakes (Springer, Dordrecht), pp. 401–442 (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-024-2080-7) with permission of Springer Nature. (E) Reprinted from Fig. 8 of Webb, J. F. and Ramsay, J. B. (2017). “New interpretation of the 3-D configuration of lateral line scales and the lateral line canal contained within them,” Copeia 105, 339–347, with permission from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.