The olm or proteus (Proteus anguinus) is a cave-dwelling urodelan amphibian, endemic to the underground waters of the Dinaric karst. It is a neotenic amphibian that achieves sexual maturity in its larval stage. Its larval characteristics are also reflected in the structure of its skin. In my Bachelor’s thesis, we used the histological slides of cross sections of the body to analyse the skin grossmorphology in specimens of different size. We compared the thickness of the skin and the relative density of the Leydig cells ( “Lyc”) in the epidermis, and the relative density of the multicellular mucus glands (“MG”) in the dermis. The research showed that the skin on the dorsal side of the body is, in most cases, thicker than on the the ventral side, as well as thatthe skin is thicker in larger specimens. The relative density of Lyc is larger in the epidermis on the dorsal side of the body. Smaller specimens havemore Lyc in the epidermis, whereas the larger ones have more MG in the dermis.
|
