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Authors

  • Maria Heloísa B. C. Furtado Beto Carreiro World - Zoológico
  • Paulo César Simões-Lopes Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos (LAMAQ). Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia - CCB - UFSC

Abstract

This work presents a comparative study of the senile and degenerative alterations and anatomical variations in the vertebral column of eight small cetacean species: Tursiops truncatus (Montagu, 1821); Steno bredanensis (Lesson, 1823); Sotalia fluviatilis guianensis (Van Bénéden, 1864); Delphinus capensis (Gray, 1828); Stenella frontalis (Cuvier, 1829); Stenella clymene (Gray, 1850); Phocoena spinipinnis (Burmeister, 1865); Pontoporia blainvillei (Gervais & d'Orbigny, 1844)). Cases of osteochondrosis were observed in 20% of the sample (n=55). This alteration was record in 62,5% of the Stenella frontalis and 10% of the Sotalia fluviatilis guianensis examined, mainly in the thoracic region. Osteochondrosis was not observed in Phocoena spinipinnis and Pontoporia blainvillei. A lateral inclination in the dorsal apophysis of a lumbar vertebra of a S. frontalis specimen was the only anatomical variation found in this study. It was verified that osteochondrosis is related to the aging process as well as to the degeneration of the invertebral disks. Thus, such secundary alterations are not in fact a pathological process but an adaptative response to the maintenance of the stability of the vertebral column.

Author Biographies

Maria Heloísa B. C. Furtado, Beto Carreiro World - Zoológico

Possui Graduação em Ciências Biológicas pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina e Mestrado em Educação pela Universidade do Vale do Itajaí.

Mais informações no Currículo Lattes.

Paulo César Simões-Lopes, Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos (LAMAQ). Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia - CCB - UFSC

Graduação: Licenciado em Ciências Biológicas - Habilitação em Biologia - pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul e Doutorado em Zoologia pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul. Atualmente é professor Associado III do Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.

Mais informações no Currículo Lattes.

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Published

1999-01-01

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (1999)

Section

Artigos

License

Copyright (c) 1999 Maria Heloísa B. C. Furtado, Paulo César Simões-Lopes

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

After the electronic publication of the manuscript, the authors are entitled, without any restriction, on its contents.

License Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional - CC BY

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Authors are able to take on additional contracts separately, non-exclusive distribution of the version of the paper published in this journal (ex.: publish in institutional repository or as a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.