Bone microstructure and bone mineral density are not systemically different in Antarctic icefishes and related Antarctic notothenioids.

ABSTRACT: Ancestors of the Antarctic icefishes (family Channichthyidae) were benthic and had no swim bladder, making it energetically expensive to rise from the ocean floor. To exploit the water column, benthopelagic icefishes were hypothesized to have evolved a skeleton with "reduced bone," which gross anatomical data supported. Here, we tested the hypothesis that changes to icefish bones also occurred below the level of gross anatomy. Histology and micro-CT imaging of representative craniofacial bones (i.e., ceratohyal, frontal, dentary, and articular) of extant Antarctic fish species specifically evaluated two features that might cause the appearance of "reduced bone": bone microstructure (e.g., bone volume fraction and structure linear density) and bone mineral density (BMD, or mass of mineral p

SUBMITTER: Ashique AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8655173 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature