► Description: |
Fish including
cyclostomes, elasmobranchs, and teleosts
display a wide variety of ways of coping
with the stringent conditions they
encounter in the aquatic environment. This
diversity is especially evident in the
female genital systems where some fish
spawn profligate numbers of small eggs
while others develop a few yolky eggs that
may receive parental care. Parental care
is carried to extremes in viviparity where
eggs develop within the ovary or oviducts
of the mother. This volume describes the
myriad ways in which fish have approached
problems of reproduction it is an amply
illustrated comparative study of the
microscopic structure of the female
genital systems of fish. The timing of its
appearance is auspicious in that it
coincides with the decline of the golden
age of descriptive morphology. It is a
compilation of thousands of micrographs
mostly electron micrographs from classic
works in the field and should prove
valuable to investigators studying fish in
areas such as ecology, physiology, and
reproductive biology who may view
histology as essential in their work but
have little background in this area. It
includes chapters on the origin of genital
systems, the structure of ovarian
follicles, mechanisms of ovulation, the
cortical reaction, oviducts, oviparity,
and amazing examples of viviparity.
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