FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. 3 



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Figure 2.— Schematic representation of vertebral column, dorsal and anal fin, pterygiophore, and hypural development in Gempylus 

 serpens, Gempylidae. Cartilage, white; ossifying, stippled. Scale represents interneural and interhaemal space number and vertebra 

 number. 



added in a posterior direction. Haemal arches and 

 spines developed only when the neural spines 

 reached the caudal area, and they were added in a 

 posterior direction. Parapophyses were added ante- 

 riorly. The hypurals were added posteriorly, the par- 

 hypural and the autogenous haemal spines were 

 added anteriorly (Table 2). Ossification of the verte- 

 bral column in the gempylid genera examined by us 

 initially started in one place and was similar to the 

 ossification in Scombrolabrax, except in Diplospinus 

 the vertebral column was ossified to preural centrum 

 6 when the urostyle and the hypurals initially started 

 to ossify. Saddle-shaped vertebral ossifications were 



observed in all gempylids examined, similar to those 

 described for Scombrolabrax. 



Gempylids developed first dorsal fin pterygio- 

 phores and fin spines first, after only a few carti- 

 laginous neural spines had developed. Development 

 of first dorsal fin pterygiophores and spines was in 

 a posterior direction. During early development the 

 neural spines were anterior to the first dordal fin 

 pterygiophores and fin spines, but later they 

 developed faster and were posterior to the pterygio- 

 phores. Pterygiophores of the second dorsal and anal 

 fins developed before the developing first dorsal fin 

 pterygiophores and had joined with the second dor- 



656 



