Few studies had been done to determine whether all of the
gill arches play an equal part in gaseous exchange or whether more of the respiratory current passes over some
gill arches than others.
Among a high number of morphological and osteological characters, they also used the morphology of rakers and teeth, the number of gill rakers and teeth and the number of rows of the rakers on
gill arches as well as the rows of teeth on tooth plates.
The gill rakers are located on the concave internal side of the
gill arches. Grossly, each gill arch has two rows of rakers; small lateral and slightly larger medial rakers (Figs.
melanoptents, with approximately 1100 denticles per c[m.sup.2] in the oral cavity and up to about 1600 denticles per c[m.sup.2] on the
gill arches. Pharyngeal pads exist on the fifth gill bar only, and no ridged edges are present.
What we call the skull in humans was formed from a combination of the primitive brain case (chondrocranium), the sensory capsules and their underlying supports, components of the visceral skeleton (
gill arches and their derivatives), and the overlying dermal bones (dermatocranium).
The present investigation carried out basically with ecological indexes was aimed to study the monthly colonization of the various
gill arches of Oreochromis niloticus (Linne, 1758) by four monopisthocotylea monogenean species.
The gills of the most external
gill arches were removed, always on the right-hand side of the fish.
Gill morphology was normal, formed by
gill arches, primary and secondary lamellae.
We determined rates of metacercarial infection for each fish by removing the four left
gill arches.
Gill arches were examined with a dissecting microscope to enumerate and identify the developmental stage of all enclosed metacercariae.
After infections, fish were killed and
gill arches isolated into chilled phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) awaiting analysis of gill infection intensity using a stereomicroscope (Zeiss, SteREO Lumar .V12).
Next, the most external
gill arches were removed, always from the left side of the fish.