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Fig. 4 | BMC Evolutionary Biology

Fig. 4

From: Muscular anatomy of an entoproct creeping-type larva reveals extraordinary high complexity and potential shared characters with mollusks

Fig. 4

Confocal micrographs of the myoanatomy of the creeping-type larva of Loxosomella murmanica. Nucleic acid staining (blue), F-actin staining (red). The most prominent ring muscles are associated with the apical organ (am), frontal organ (fm) and prototroch (pm). The most prominent retractor muscles are the frontal organ retractor muscles (frm) and the prototroch longitudinal muscles (plm). a: Lateral view of a slightly contracted specimen. b: Ventral view. The pedal dorso-ventral muscles (pdvm) intercross ventrally. c: Dorso-lateral view of a largely expanded creeping-type larva. The ring-shaped body wall musculature (bm) as well as the ring muscles of the intestine (irm) are clearly visible. d: Lateral view of a slightly contracted specimen showing the posterior tip of the foot. e: Ventral view. The prototroch longitudinal muscles (plm) have pushed the horseshoe-shaped enrolling muscle (em) inside the larva, so that the usually more dorsally located prototroch ring muscles (pm) come to lie ventrally to the enrolling muscle (em). f: Ventro-lateral view of a semi-expanded creeping-type larva. Here, the horseshoe-shaped enrolling muscle (em) lies ventrally to the prototroch ring muscle (pm). The pedal dorso-ventral muscles (pdvm) intercross ventrally. a, abfrontal; d, dorsal; f, frontal; v, ventral

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