[Review of French literature on Latimeria, notably since 1972].
French research on Latimeria published before 1972 is first briefly recalled. After the Anglo-Franco-American Expedition of 1972, the material obtained enabled us to focus attention on the histology of the kidney and ureter and on ultrastructural aspects of the postnatal gland. Ovarian eggs of unusual volume have been collected, measured and weighed. Kinematic analysis of the intracranial articulation was carried out in 1973 on a frozen coelacanth that reached Paris. Studies in 1974 of a 41 cm specimen, the smallest known at that time and estimated to be 3 1/2 years old, showed that the brain still filled the cranial cavity: thus, it is later that allometric growth of the cranial cavity relegates the brain to the posterior part of the skull. In the same specimen, radiographed after injection with colloidal barium oxide, we were able to specify the likely role of the contractile organs fused to the branchial arteries: they may serve to regulate arterial pressure in the head during sudden movements of the jaws, and thus of the anterior cranium, as prey is captured. Lastly, the structural characteristics of the teeth, scale denticles, and spines on the lepidotrichia have been revealed, as also has the lamellar structure of the scales, in which there is a crossed orientation of the fibres in the different layers.
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D009865:Oocytes / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012098:Reproduction
Evocation des travaux français sur Latimeria notamment depuis 1972.