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Hi Geoff - What was the response of Sea Grant/UW Press about reprinting your
Marine Fish Larvae book?  I teach a fish reprod/recruitment class every
other year, and would gladly use it as a text which really gets students a
solid background in the field.  I'd also use Hempel's fish egg book, which I
believe also was printed at UW.  Let me know if I can provide any assistance
in prodding them to reprint the books.

As far as I know, nobody's ever looked at potential sensory functions of the
dorsal filament of tarpon.  I've got a student working on their sensory
systems now - retinal ontogeny through the larval/juvenile phase, sound
production/reception, etc., and maybe he can do a quick scope of fin
filaments.  I'm not too optimistic about a sensory function, however.  They
have an excellent lateral line system on their body, they have good vision
and auditory capabilities, and I'm not sure how a mid-body dorsal filament
could act in a chemo- or taste sense.  Another respondent suggested that the
filaments may break up trailing edge vortices coming off the dorsal.
They're so narrow and so flexible - I don't know if those characteristics
would help break up a vortex or not.  I'll have to give that some thought.
Neat fish, however.  Their air-breathing abilities lets them use very nasty
swamps as nursery habitats.  Most of my freshman have been raised on the
Jacques Cousteau/Flipper school of marine biology, so I use tarpon swamps
for a little reality check for students.  Most of the students are pretty
good, and quickly adapt to wading chin-deep in muck and green water; the
die-hard Flipper-philes quickly change majors.

Hope all's well in California.

Jon


----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff Moser" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 6:24 PM
Subject: Re: dorsal filaments?


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>
> Hi John,
> Has anyone ever prepared histological sections of the filaments to see if
they
> have sensory organs on them? It is difficult to imagine a hydrodynamic
function
> for them but Karel Leim at Harvard may have some ideas. His finding that
tarpons
> can respire are taken into their air bladders was an eye opener to me.
Some
> years ago I contacted Univ. of Washington SeaGrant and Univ. of Washington
Press
> about reprinting Marine Fish Larvae because many people had asked me about
its
> availability. I just checked Amazon.com's used book link and saw two
copies
> advertised for $53 each. Unbelievable.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Geoff
>
> Jon Shenker wrote:
>
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> >
> > An off-the-wall question:
> >
> > Does anyone have any good hypotheses about the function of the elongated
> > dorsal filaments that are found in some fish species?
> >
> > In the lower teleosts:
> > Tarpon have very long filaments, ladyfish don't.
> > Shafted bonefish (Albula nemoptera) has the dorsal filament, bonefish
(A.
> > vulpes) don't.
> > Three or four North American clupeids have filaments, the rest don't.
> >
> > In the elasmobranchs, many species have some sort of elongation of the
> > dorsal fin beyond the fin base, but the fin seems elongated into
distinct
> > filaments in hammerhead, bonnetheads and others.
> >
> > A hydrodynamic function?  Maybe in elasmos, who have larger, stiffer
> > filaments, but in the slender , flexible filaments of teleosts?
> > Why would some closely-related species have them, and others not?
> >
> > Would removing a portion of the dorsal filament of a tarpon (for DNA
> > analysis) have an impact on the fish?
> >
> > Any information or speculation would be welcome.
> >
> > On another note:  My old copy of Reuben Lasker's (ed.) Marine Fish
Larvae
> > has finally been shredded beyond repair before I found time to photocopy
it.
> > It's an oldie but a goodie for helping students get started in the
larval
> > fish field.  I haven't had any luck finding a copy for sale in the used
book
> > web sites.  If anyone sees a copy for sale, please let me know.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Jon Shenker, Ph.D.
> > Associate Professor of Marine Biology and Aquaculture
> > Department of Biological Sciences
> > Florida Institute of Technology
> > 150 West University Boulevard
> > Melbourne, FL 32901
> > 321-674-8145
> > FAX 321-674-7238
> > [log in to unmask]
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