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A ‘Hyaline’ Layer in the Skin of Squids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

J.J. Madan  and
M.J. Wells
J.J. Madan
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ
M.J. Wells
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ
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Extract

The skin of Loligo vulgaris and Illex illecebrosus contains a thick layer of amorphous material. In Loligo it lies above and in Illex below the chromatophore layer. We can find no mention of this layer in the considerable literature on squid skins despite its potential importance as a protection to underlying tissues and as a possible barrier to cutaneous oxygen uptake.

Cephalopods have soft complicated skins. Embedded in the skin, most species have chromatophores, small bags of pigment that can be expanded by muscles that are under direct nervous control from the brain. There is an extensive literature on the physiology of chromatophores (Packard, 1988) and on their function in the behaviour of the animals (Hanlon & Messenger, 1996; Packard & Hochberg, 1977). Further cutaneous structures concerned in the determination of the colour of living cephalopods, the reflecting iridophores and leucophores (Cloney & Brocco, 1983), and the light generating photophores (Herring, 1988), have been the subject of a number of reports but other skin features such as the distribution of blood vessels have attracted little attention.

Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 77 , Issue 4 , November 1997 , pp. 1247 - 1250
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1997

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References

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