[Early Stages of Skull Embryogenesis in the Grass Snake, Natrix natrix (Serpentes, Colubridae)].

Abstract

Studies of previous authors on snake skull embryogenesis have been performed on embryos obtained from eggs after oviposition. The aim of this study was to investigate the initial stages of chondrocranium development in Grass-snake Natrixnatrix Linnaeus, 1758, embryos before oviposition. Natrix natrix embryos at early developmental stages (24-27 according to the table of normal development by D. Zehr (1962)) were obtained by means of caesarean section. At developmental stages 25-27, previously undescribed structures were found in the region of future skull formation. These structures exist during one or two stages and then disappear. Therefore, we call them "temporary structures." The assumption about the nature of these structures is based on their topography and comparison with the structures of developing or fully formed chondrocranium in other vertebrates. It is hypothesized that the temporary structures in Natrix natrix chondrocranium are vestiges ofprimary chondrocranium of ancestral vertebrate forms, and they indicate the existence of several variants in the formation of chondrocranium in the historical vertebrates.' development.