A shh-expressing epithelial ridge on the skate mandibular arch. (A,B) At S22, shh is expressed broadly throughout the posterior epithelium of each pharyngeal arch in skate, including (B) the mandibular arch. (C,D) By S27, shh expression on the skate mandibular arch has resolved to a (D) thin ridge of cells lying along the posterior-lateral edge of the arch, comparable with the gill arch epithelial ridge (GAER) shh expression of the hyoid and gill arches reported by Gillis and Hall (2016). (E,F) At S29, shh persists in the mandibular hyoid and gill arch GAERs. A, C and E show whole-mount mRNA in situ hybridisation for shh. B, D and F show mRNA in situ hybridisation for shh on frontal sections through the mandibular arch. In B,D,F, the mesodermal core or muscle plate of the mandibular arch is outlined with a dashed line. ha, hyoid arch; ma, mandibular arch; 1-4, gill arches 1-4. Scale bars: 200 μm in A,C,E; 50 μm in B,D,F.