Embryonic development of the bullseye puffer Sphoeroides annulatus (Tetraodontidae): A morphofunctional approach to ontogenetic steps

The embryonic development of the bullseye puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus, was characterized on the basis of the theory of saltatory ontogeny. This theory predicts a correlative relationship between the ontogeny‐type in an altricial‐precocial spectrum and the habitat that a species occupies within an...

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Published in:Journal of morphology (1931) 2019-07, Vol.280 (7), p.948-967
Main Authors: Martínez‐Brown, Juan M., Cetzal‐Aké, Carlos A., Ibarra‐Castro, Leonardo, Sánchez‐Cárdenas, Rebeca, Maldonado‐Amparo, María A., Rojo‐Cebreros, Angel H., Sánchez‐Téllez, Juan L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Blastula - cytology
developmental biology
Embryo, Nonmammalian - physiology
Embryonic Development
Female
Gastrulation
Germ Cells - cytology
Heart - embryology
Heart Rate - physiology
histology
Larva - growth & development
Male
organogenesis
saltatory ontogeny
Somites - embryology
stages
Tetraodontiformes - anatomy & histology
Tetraodontiformes - embryology
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Summary:The embryonic development of the bullseye puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus, was characterized on the basis of the theory of saltatory ontogeny. This theory predicts a correlative relationship between the ontogeny‐type in an altricial‐precocial spectrum and the habitat that a species occupies within an unstable‐stable environmental spectrum. Because S. annulatus inhabits a variety of unstable environments along a wide latitudinal range, the hypothesis that this species presents one of the most altricial embryonic developments among tetraodontids was tested. Based on major developmental events that marked the ontogenetic thresholds nine embryonic steps were identified. Developmental features such as small adhesives eggs, lack of vitelline circulation, small free embryos swimming up at hatching guided by positive phototaxis, and small first‐feeding larvae actively swam in the water column, suggest that S. annulatus belongs to the reproductive guild of the nonguarders‐lithopelagophils. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the developmental sequences, egg size, and first‐feeding larvae size between tetraodontids confirms the hypothesis of this study and supports the evolutionary principle of the altricial‐precocial spectrum postulated in the theory of saltatory ontogeny. The embryonic development of Sphoeroides annulatus is conformed by nine ontogenetic steps. Transitions between steps mark interspecific heterochronic differences, resulting in an altricial development pattern compared to other tetraodontids.
ISSN:0362-2525
1097-4687
DOI:10.1002/jmor.20994