NOTES Gauldie and Czochanska Hyperostosic bones from Chrysophrys auratus 



203 



Figure 1 



Radiograph of Chrys^ophrys auratus hyperostosic bones showing the enlarged haemal spines. 



polar and non-polar columns were employed, the 

 former containing 10% EGSS-X (210 x 0.254 cm i.d.) 

 and the latter a BP-1 capillary column (25 x 0.33 mm 

 i.d.). 



Eight pairs of hyperostoses and vertebrae were ana- 

 lyzed (Table 1) for fat content and general fat composi- 

 tion. A subset of pairs of hyperostoses and vertebrae 

 was used in the identifications of fatty-acid methyl 

 esters based upon comparison of retention times with 

 those of authentic reference methyl esters run under 

 identical conditions. Where particular reference stan- 

 dards were not available, equivalent chain-length 

 values reported by Hofstetter et al. (1965) and by 

 Jamieson (1969) were accepted as criteria of identity. 

 Identification was corroborated by hydrogenation of 

 an aliquot of the esterified samples. Saturated and 

 branched chain products were then analyzed by GLC 

 on a polar column. The results of fatty-acid analyses 

 were expressed as the percentage area occupied by 



each component methyl-ester peak relative to the total 

 peak area. In the fatty-acid composition analyses re- 

 ported here, the percentages were based on peak areas 

 obtained with the 10% EGSS-X column (Table 2). 

 Fatty-acid composition of snapper fillets (Hughes et al. 

 1980) is included for comparison in Table 2. 



Results 



Eight sets of snapper hyperostosic bones and controls 

 were examined. An example of a pair of snapper hyper- 

 ostosic bones is shown in Figure 1. In life, the hyper- 

 ostosis has a reddish color and appears to be well vas- 

 cularized. Commonly, hyperostoses occur both on the 

 sixth and seventh haemal spine from the tail, as has 

 also been described for Chrysophrys unicolor (Yasuda 

 and Mizuguchi 1969). Although both hyperostoses may 

 be enlarged, it is more common to find that the one 



