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Figure 2 | BMC Biology

Figure 2

From: A unique swim bladder-inner ear connection in a teleost fish revealed by a combined high-resolution microtomographic and three-dimensional histological study

Figure 2

Transversal sections of the head of E. maculatus (SL = 29 mm) displaying the swim bladder-inner ear connection. Sections are based on (A) high-resolution microCT imaging and (B) histological serial sections. (A) represents a slightly oblique slice through the microCT data stack, largely adjusted to the mechanical cutting plane in (B 1 ). (B 2 ) is a detail of (B 1 ). The semithin section in (B 2 ) especially shows that the swim bladder extension is firmly attached via connective material to a thin bony lamella which directly borders on the lagena of the inner ear. The white arrowhead in (B) indicates a disruption of the swim bladder wall; an artifact not observed in the tomographic section (white arrowhead in (A)). In contrast to the tomographic section, only a small part of the otolith is left due to decalcification in the histological sections. For the section plane refer to Figure 1. Scale bars, 1 mm (A), 500 μm (B 1 ), 250 μm (B 2 ). microCT, microtomography; SL, standard length.

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