Age Structure, Growth, and Weight of Branchiostoma senegalense (Acrania, Branchiostomidae). off North-West Africa

✍ Scribed by Dr. Fritz Gosselck; Dr. Peter Spittler

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 440 KB
• Volume: 64
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1434-2944
• DOI: 10.1002/iroh.19790640418

✦ Synopsis

Branchiostoma senegalense from a population off North-West Africa reach an age of 4-5 years.

Relative growth decreases logarithmically with age. B. senegalense reaches 50% of its maximum length during the first year. Differences in the average length of these lancelets in samples taken in close proximity of each other are ascribed to the absence of individual year classes. The immigration of larvae into suitable sediments depends on the current and follows the pattern of the larval swarms in the plankton. Colonized areas are not normally left.

The functions relating wet and dry weights (WW and DW respectively) t o length L are Ig WW = 2.71 x Ig L -2.16, and Ig DW = 2.96 X Ig L -3.45.

The dry weight is 11.85 ", ' n of the wet weight.