Characteristics of axial skeleton in Seriola dumerili

With X-ray and ecological digestion methods, the axial skeleton of Seriola dumerili were digested, photographed and described statistically. It is showed that the axial skeleton of S. dumerili included skull and spine. The skull was divided into neurocranium and splanchnocranium. The neurocranium was composed of ethmoidal region, orbital region, otic region, occipital region and circumorbital series. The splanchnocranium was divided into mandibular arch, hyoid arch, branchial arch and opercular series. The supporting structure spine was composed of vertebrae connected front and back. All vertebra consisted of centrum, neural spine and neural arch in different shapes. Partial vertebrae differentiated into parapophysis, ribs, haemal arches and haemal spines. The results show that the main bones of skull were about 128, including 39 neurocranium and 89 splanchnocranium. The number of vertebrae of S. dumerili spine was 24, with 23 neural spine, 23 neural arch, 14 haemal spines, 15 haemal arch, 10 pairs of parapophysis and 9 pairs of ventral ribs, but without dorsal rib.