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At 14.30 02/03/2005, Mike wrote:
>I think the fact that some y-o-y can be sexually mature is exactly why you >should not define juveniles as y-o-y. There's too much variation in >development >among species to define juvenile meaningfully in that way. > >I prefer to apply the term juvenile to all fish that are meristically the same >as adults but that have immature gonads and possibly lack adult coloration. >Therefore, larval fish are not juveniles. Larvae and juveniles, however, are >both immature. Furthermore, adult and mature are synonyms.
I believe that some of us are reluctant to consider large - yet immature - animals as "juveniles" because of its Latin ethymology (=young, that I associate to small-sized little-aged individuals). But it's all relative, or so it seems...
Anyway it is astonishing how a single biological term, that one might superficially consider well defined and well delimited, can be interpreted in a variety of ways!
Carlo
***************************************** Carlo Pipitone CNR-IAMC Laboratorio di Ecologia Marina via Giovanni da Verrazzano 17 91014 Castellammare del Golfo (TP) Italy --------- Tel: +39 0924 35013 Fax:+39 0924 35084 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Web site: http://www.irma.pa.cnr.it *****************************************
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