SKELETAL SYSTEM:

THE APPENDICULAR
SKELETON
PRECY ANN MAE D. REYES
 BASIC COMPONENTS
• Fins
• membranous or webbed processes internally strengthened by
radiating and thin fin rays.
• form initially at the interface between dermis and epidermis,
like scales, but then sink into the dermis (dermal fin rays).
 Elasmobranchs – ceratotrichia (keratinized)
 Bony fishes – lepidotrichia (ossified/chondrified)
 Some bony fishes –actinotrichia

 Pterygiophores – supports the proximal part of the fin close to

the body.
 Enlarged basals within the proximal part of the fin
 Slender radials that extend support from the basals into the
middle region of the fin
 BASIC COMPONENTS
• Limbs
• Chiridium - a muscular appendage with well-defined joints
bearing digits (fingers and toes), not a fin, at its end.
• Autopodium - the distal end of the limb, consists of
numerous elements composing the wrist and ankle, hand
implies a structure modified for grasping, and foot
suggests a role in standing
• manus and pes, respectively, are preferred for the
autopodium of fore- and hindlimbs.
• Zeugopodium – middle limb region with two internal
supportive elements: ulna and radius of the forearm, tibia
and fibula of the shank.
• Stylopodium – limb region closest to the body, with a single
element: humerus of the upper arm, femur of the thigh.

Basic components of the fin and the limb

ORIGIN OF PAIRED FINS:
GILL- ARCH THEORY
• Carl Gegenbaur proposed that paired fins and their girdles arose
from gill arches.
• Endoskeletal girdle arose from the gill arch,
• Primitive archipterygial fin arose from the gill rays
• based his theory on fin anatomy in sharks

Gill-arch theory left much unexplained. It does not explain:

(1) the appearance of a posterior pelvic girdle distantly placed from
the gill arches, nor
(2) the presence of dermal bone in the pectoral girdle, nor
(3) different embryologies of pectoral girdle and gill arches.
ORIGIN OF PAIRED FINS:
FIN-FOLD THEORY
• F. M. Balfour and J. K. Thacher
• paired fins arose within a paired but continuous set of
ventrolateral folds in the body wall that were stiffened by a
transverse series of endoskeletal pterygiophores, proximally the
basals and distally the radials
• The primitive paired fins were attached to the body by a broad
base and carried no weight.
• Main function was to act as horizontal stabilizing keels, which
tended to prevent rolling movements and possibly also front-to-
back pitching movements.
EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT OF TETRAPOD LIMBS
 PHYLOGENY

The antiarch Bothriolepis, a placoderm from the late Devonian,

Primitive (a) and modern (b) sharks.

Summary of
pectoral girdle
evolution

Pectoral girdles of selected vertebrates,

Summary of
pelvic girdle
evolution

Pelvic girdles of selected vertebrates

Variations of the tetrapod manus. (a)
Amphibian (Necturus). (b) Lizard, (c)
Turtle (Pseudemys). (d) Ichthyosaur,
(e) Bird, (f) Hypothetical primitive
perissodactyl. (g) Artiodactyl. (h)
Generalized artiodactyl.
Variations of the
tetrapod pes. (a) Amphibian (Necturus).
(b) Lizard, (c) Bird (chicken), (d) Fossil
horse, (e) Modern horse, (f) Cat.
(g) Human.
 EVOLUTION OF THE APPENDICULAR SYSTEM

• Dual Origin of the Pectoral Girdle

• Tetrapods  ilium, ischium, pubic
• Fishes  istic

endochondral component, the scapulocoracoid,

evolved by fusion or enlargement of several basal
fin elements.

pectoral girdle of osteichthyans

dermal component of the shoulder girdle
evolved from dermal bones of the body’s
surface
• Adaptive Advantage of Lobe Fins
• Living lungfishes use their rudimentary lobe fins to “walk”
along the bottom of slow-moving streams or backwaters;
that is, they use their fins as points of pivot about which
their buoyant body moves.
• Onto the Land
• The Devonian was a time of occasional
droughts and floods, which suggests that
rhipidistians might have used strengthened
fins/limbs to move from a small drying pool to
larger, permanent ones.
• movement to the land was favored by
predation in the water.
• limbs developed to enable fishes to get out of
the water and breathe.
FORMS AND FUNCTION

• Swimming
• Tetrapods- the limbs again may become
secondary to the tail and lose their
prominence in aquatic locomotion
• Aquatic birds- wings have greater roles in
swimming; forelimb becomes stouter and
robust
• Penguins - used exclusively like flippers
to enable the animal to swim underwater
• may become partially or completely
webbed feet to increase pressure against
the water when these birds paddle
• Terrestrial Locomotion
• any of several forms
of animal movement such
as walking and running, jumping
(saltation), and crawling.
• Walking and running, in which
the body is carried well off the
surface on which the animal is
moving.
• Running (cursorial) vertebrates
are characterized by elongated
lower legs and feet and by
reduction and fusion of toes.
• Saltatory locomotion, movement
by leaping, hopping, or jumping,
is found in vertebrates (frogs,
kangaroos, rabbits and hares,
some rodents)
Reduction of digits in cursorial
animals.
Gait or footfall patterns of various mammals.
Comparison of two cursorial mammals, a horse and a cheetah
• Aerial Locomotion
• Gliding and Parachuting
• Parachuting- maximizing drag
• Gliding- minimizing drag
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