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Different types of photophore in the oceanic squids Octopoteuthis and Taningia (Cephalopoda: Octopoteuthidae) |
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| Authors: | P J Herring P N Dilly and Celia Cope |
| Institution: | Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Deacon Laboratory, Brook Road, Wormley, Surrey GU8 5UB;Department of Anatomy, St. George's Hospital Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, Tooting, London SW17 0RE |
| Abstract: | The oceanic squid Octopoteuthis danue Joubin has one type of photophore on the head, body and arms, but another type on the eight arm tips. The first type has acomplexcapillary network, with elastic walls and a thick reflector. The arm tip organs have no such capillary core but a dense matrix containing paracrystalline assemblies. Taningia danae Joubin (the only other genus in the family Octopoteuthidae) has only two large arm tip photophores. These are similar in their general organization to the arm tip photophores of Octopoteuthis , but their detailed structure is quite different. There has evidently been independent evolution of photophores in this family of squids. |
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