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Alterações senil-degenerativas e variações anatômicas na coluna vertebral de pequenos cetáceos

1999; UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

2175-7925

Maria Heloísa B. C. Furtado, Paulo C. Simões‐Lopes,

Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies

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 Beneden, 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.