Contribution to a knowledge of the morphogenesis of the nasal apparatus of the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) L.)
Slabý, O.
Folia Morphologica 35(4): 400-409
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0015-5640 PMID: 3692382 Document Number: 305144
The author studied the morphogenesis of the nasal apparatus of a 57 mm dromedary (Camelus dromedarius L.) embryo. A few well developed ancestral structures were found, such as a superior alar cartilage, an anterior parasental cartilage, a crista semicircularis, a well developed anterior transversal lamina, a reduced organ of Jacobson and clearly discernible boundaries between the parietotectal and paranasal cartilages and the orbitonasal lamina. Specialized characters can be said to include the striking secondarily simple structure of the capsule and the epithelial tube, with a spreading capsule, but a narrow nasal tube, absence of an "atrioturbinale" auctorum and a very large "maxilloturbinale" auctorum (the author doubts the correctness of the interpretation of these elements in higher vertebrates), a complicated labyrinth of olfactory conchae, but a generally poorly developed crista semicircularis, frontoturbinale and nasoturbinale. While the morphological elements of the rostral floor of the nasal cavity are well developed, there is no floor in the caudal part. The author does not believe the crista semicircularis to be homologous with the concha of reptiles, or the frontal (anterior) recess to be homologous with the extracapsular process in reptiles. The crista semicircularis seems rather to correspond morphologically to the secondary concha in Agama (see Slaby 1981), while the lateral edge of the rostral part of the parietotectal cartilage ought to correspond to the true ancestral atrioturbinale.