Adaptation and Natural Selection

Lateral Line


It is sometimes hard to figure out what an organ is for. And researchers have to work hard to identify its adaptive function.

The lateral line is a good illustration. This organ is a conspicuous morphological feature of the great majority of fishes. ... Eventually, painstaking morphological and physiological studies by many workers demonstrated that the lateral line is a sense organ related in basic mechanism to audition (pp. 10-11).

Here is a picture of a cod with a clear example of the lateral line (picture from Life Nature Library, Fish).


Last modified, Sept. 15, 2007. (c) Soshichi Uchii
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