The Zebrafish Science Monitor Vol 3(4)
STAGES OF EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ZEBRAFISHBy C.B. Kimmel, W.W. Ballard*, S.R. Kimmel, B. Ullmann, and T.F. Schilling; Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403; *Department of Biology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755
We plan to publish soon an extensively expanded revision of the staging series in the journal, Developmental Dynamics. The new version has more illustrations, including Nomarski views of key features we use in staging. The text is expanded, including a glossary, and the text has profited from the comments of reviewers for the journal, as well as from Monte and other colleagues. We have changed a few of the stage names for the sake of clarity (you can find the new names in the accompanying figure), and we rename the period of development during the second day (i.e. the time between 24 and 48 h) the "pharyngula period", a name coined by Bill Ballard a number of years ago for von Baer's vertebrate phylotypic stage. I think this is a much better name, meatier and more accurate than the old name "straightening", which no one used anyway, and hope that you will use it and honor Bill in doing so.
We are making arrangements with the publisher to assure that we will be able to continue to include the series as a chapter in The Zebrafish Book and also keep it available on the zebrafish WWW Internet server (). I sincerely hope that the new publication will not stifle the growth and development of the series as an evolving tool, and that the new version will soon be out of date. Recently we have been studying cartilage morphogenesis occurring late in embryogenesis and in the larva, and new staging information during these periods would certainly be useful!
Among the changes is a new set of line drawings, made from camera lucida sketches of the embryo at selected stages by Seth Kimmel (moonlighting from his job as a carpenter here in Eugene). We reproduce this set here, and we will be pleased to send you an unlettered set of very nice quality larger reproductions made onto velum upon request to Bonnie Ullmann (ULLMANN@UONEURO.UOREGON.EDU). They can also be downloaded from the zebrafish WWW server: /zf_info/zfbook/stages/stages.html
The animal pole is to the top for the early stages, and anterior is to the top later, except for the two animal polar (AP) views shown below with their side view counterparts for germ-ring and shield gastrulas. Face views are shown during cleavage and blastula stages. After shield stage, the views are of the embryo's left side, but before the shield arises one cannot always reliably ascertain which side is which. Pigmentation is omitted.
Zebrafish Science Monitor Vol 3(4)
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