Post-metamorphic growth of the arms inOphiophragmus filograneus(Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from Tampa Bay, Florida (USA)
✍ Scribed by R. L. Turner
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag
- Year
- 1974
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 478 KB
- Volume
- 24
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0025-3162
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Juveniles of the burrowing amphiurid Ophiophragmus filograneus from Tampa Bay, Florida (USA) exhibit a growth pattern unreported in the ophinroid literature. Two nonadjacent arms grow at a greater rate than the other three arms. This phenomenon might be a developmental adaptation to avoid salinity and temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the shallow-water environment which O. filograneus inhabits. It is proposed that concentration of growth into 2 of the 5 arms permits earlier descent of the disc into the substratum with continued ability to feed on the surface with the arm tips. Larger specimens show a gradual equalization of arm lengths. Changes in growth rates and cropping of the longer arms by breakage and predation might account for such eventual equalization.