Snout short, dorsal scales with smooth granules. Median sub-caudals are enlarged. Ventrals smooth. Pre-anal pores absent.
|
|
Scales on venter imbricate, with rounded posterior edges. A single series of 5 pre-anal pores in a shallow pre-cloacal depression.
|
|
The short conical tail lacks autotomy. The body is short and stout relative to other legless lizards. Both sexes lack pre-anal pores.
|
|
Glandular scales separate 4-5 pre-anal pores and 3-6 femoral pores on each side. Dorsum brown with four dark transverse markings.
|
|
X. taylori is sexually dimorphic. Males are thinner and smaller, and their chins turn blue when excited. Males have larger anal pores enclosed by a waxy yellow substance.
|
|
Males have hemipenal bulges at the base of the tail. Males also have a pair of pre-anal pores/scales just above the cloacal opening that the females lack.
|
|
The body is with small, granular scales, intermixed with larger keeled scales. Midventral scales are cycloid and imbricate, numbering 35. Toes are short. Males have 3-4 pre-anal pores and 3-4 femoral pores.
|
|
The head is large and broad. The tail is long, slender and longer than head-body length. Dorsal scales across mid-body between mid-ventral folds 35. Males with 4–6 pre-anal pores arranged at a wide angle.
|
|
The dorsum is a yellow-ochre color with dark brown spots. The throat is either bright yellow or orange. The chest and venter are pale gray or yellow. There are 4 pre-anal pores and 4 to 10 femoral pores.
|
|
Scales on dorsum similar to those on the belly, are distinctly imbricate, leaf-shaped and almost smooth; scales increase in size from snout towards the tail with the largest scales found just above limbs and on the tail. Femoral pores absent; adult males have up to 6 pre-anal pores; the fourth toe appears subdigital and divided partially.
|
|
Pearlfishes are unusual in that the adults of most species live inside various types of invertebrates. They typically live inside clams, starfish, or sea squirts, and are simply commensal, not harming their hosts. However, some species are known to be parasitic on sea cucumbers, eating their gonads and living in their anal pores. Pearlfish usually live alone, or in pairs.
|
|
When prey is swallowed, it is liquefied in the pharynx by enzymes and by muscular contractions of the pharynx. The resulting slurry is wafted through the canal system by the beating of the cilia, and digested by the nutritive cells. The ciliary rosettes in the canals may help to transport nutrients to muscles in the mesoglea. The anal pores may eject unwanted small particles, but the most unwanted matter is regurgitated via the mouth.
|
|
Males have pre-anal pores and hemipenal bulges while females have smaller pores and do not have external bulges. Males can determine the sex of other common leopard geckos by smelling pheromones on their skin. Males respond to males with aggressive behavior while they demonstrate courtship behavior towards females. Towards other males, the male would raise itself up from the ground, extend his limbs, and arch his back with the swelling of the tongue in aggression.
|
|
At least two textbooks base their descriptions of ctenophores on the cydippid Pleurobrachia. Since the body of many species is almost radially symmetrical, the main axis is oral to aboral (from the mouth to the opposite end.) However, since only two of the canals near the statocyst terminate in anal pores, ctenophores have no mirror- symmetry, although many have rotational symmetry. In other words, if the animal rotates in a half-circle it looks the same as when it started.
|
|
With an average adult length of 9 cm in length, the tessellated gecko has a moderate body a short fleshy tail with enlarged conical scales in rings. Their body colours are varied from pale greys to rich reds with a highly variable pattern. Along the mid-dorsal region of the body and tail there is often irregular serious of pale yellow or blackish spots that are often in pairs. Pre-anal pores are absent with 4–13 post-anal tubercles.
|
|
Usually dibamids are dark colored, from brown to dark purple, with little to no variation along their body and frequently lack elaborate patterns. It is common to find a color gradation from the darker back towards a lighter ventral side. Scales are shiny and smooth and very similar and overlapping along with some variation in number and shape in the head and anal regions where males usually have additional scales to cover anal pores. Scale row counts varies between both genera; Anelytropsis has 19 to 25 rows whereas Dibamus has 18 to 33.
|
|
Like most gecko species, the variable fat-tailed gecko lacks a moveable eyelid and instead relies on a long, flexible tongue to keep their eyes moist and clean. Both male and female geckos possess paracloacal (parallel to the cloaca) spurs, small clusters of around 3-8 spines. It is important to note that although present in both sexes, paracloacal spurs in females are rarely more than 50% larger than adjacent body scales. In addition to paracloacal spurs, a key identifying feature of the variable fat-tailed gecko is a lack of pre-anal pores.
|
|
Lacalli (1996) suggested a scenario in which the ancestor had a single opening to the digestive system, and that the neural and non-neural mouths arose independently in protostomes and chordates, respectively. By this hypothesis, there is no need for inversion. Martindale and Henry propose a ctenophore-like ancestor (biradial rather than bilateral) with a concentrated nerve cord and two anal pores on opposite sides of the animal in addition to a terminal gut opening. If one of these pores became the mouth in protostomes and the other became the mouth in deuterostomes, this would also preclude inversion.
|
|
The inner layer of the epidermis contains a nerve net, and myoepithelial cells that act as muscles. The internal cavity forms: a mouth that can usually be closed by muscles; a pharynx ("throat"); a wider area in the center that acts as a stomach; and a system of internal canals. These branch through the mesoglea to the most active parts of the animal: the mouth and pharynx; the roots of the tentacles, if present; all along the underside of each comb row; and four branches around the sensory complex at the far end from the mouth – two of these four branches terminate in anal pores. The inner surface of the cavity is lined with an epithelium, the gastrodermis.
|
|