Journal article

Publication year: 1996

Pages: 140-154

Journal: Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde = International journal of mammalian biology

Volume number: 61

Issue number: 3

ISSN: 0044-3468

Publisher: Urban & Fischer

Abstract: 

This study discusses three aspects of the comparative anatomy of the stomach in seven species of odontocete cetaceans: ontogenetic changes in the proportions of four gastric regions, the lines of fixation of the mesogastria to the stomach and the mode of branching of arteries that supply the organ.

An interspecific comparison revealed a considerable postnatal increase in the relative volume of the forestomach, however, in the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) there is a constant decrease in the size of the forestomach during the time period when the total length of the embryo lies between 7% and 12% of the neonatal length. The forestomach, which is not differentiated in species of the cetacean family Ziphiidae (Mesoplodon densirostris was investigated here), is completely differentiated on the ontogenetically left side of the stomach anlage, a situation that has only been found once - in the Bradypodidae or tree sloths - in terrestrial mammals.

The branching mode of the arterial supply of the stomach showed only one synapomorphy between Stenella longirostris and Tursiops aduncus; where the A. gastrica sinistra is a branch of the A. hepatica communis In all other comparisons only symplesiomorphies could be discerned; between Mesoplodon densirostris and Grampus griseus in as many as three cases This relatively high number of symplesiomorphies indicates that the gastric arterial system in both species did not change significantly from the basic situation at the beginning of cetacean evolution.

Harvard Citation style: Langer, P. (1996) Comparative anatomy of the stomach of the Cetacea. Ontogenetic changes involving gastric proportions mesenteries arteries, ZEITSCHRIFT FUR SAUGETIERKUNDE-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MAMMALIAN BIOLOGY, 61(3), pp. 140-154

APA Citation style: Langer, P. (1996). Comparative anatomy of the stomach of the Cetacea. Ontogenetic changes involving gastric proportions mesenteries arteries. ZEITSCHRIFT FUR SAUGETIERKUNDE-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MAMMALIAN BIOLOGY. 61(3), 140-154.