spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by DODD, J. M.
Right arrow Articles by CALLAN, H. G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by DODD, J. M.
Right arrow Articles by CALLAN, H. G.

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s3-96, 121-128, Copyright © 1955 by Company of Biologists

Neoteny with Goitre in Triturus Helveticus

J. M. DODD 1 and H. G. CALLAN 1

1 Department of Natural History, The University, St. Andrews

A population of newts from a pond near Crail, Fife, was found to contain neotenic and goitrous specimens of Triturus helveticus in 1951 and 1952 but not in 1953 and 1954. This is a unique record of goitre among amphibians.

The thyroid glands of normal adult and neotenic non-goitrous T. helveticus are paired spheroidal or ellipsoidal bodies whose longest dimension varies between 300 and 700 µ They consist of a few large follicles. The thyroid glands of the goitrous neotenic specimens may be as much as 4 mm. long. They are extremely hyperplastic and hyperaemic and for the most part consist of follicles smaller than those characteristic of normal newt thyroids. These goitrous thyroids produce major displacement of other structures in the throat region but do not invade other tissues.

It is suggested that the goitres result from the exposure of overwintering newt larvae to the ‘brassica factor’ carried to the pond in the faeces of rabbits feeding on turnips and kale in neighbouring fields.






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1955