Instances of excessive thickening of certain bones In the ribbon fish, Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus

Abstract

While studying the biology and fishery of ribbon fishes of the family Trichiuridae from Indian waters, my attention was drawn by Dr. S. Jones to the occurrence some swollen bones, popularly called ' stones' in Trichiurus lepturus. Although Cuvier {vide Gunther, I860) and Starks (1911) have mentioned such instances the skull and clavicle of this species, similar cases in respect of other bones have hitherto not been reported. The results of an investigation of the identity, nature and occurrence of these bones are presented in this paper