Lynn Kee, Graduate Student (Verhey Laboratory),Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan; David Gold, Graduate Student, UCLA; Meghan Morrissey, Graduate Student, Duke University
This is an image of the ventral (bottom) surface an embryonic skate, Raja, a cartilaginous fish that is related to skates and stingrays. The skeleton of this skate is formed from cartilage (blue), the same flexible type of tissue that forms your ears. The purplish dots thatappear sprinkled throughout the mantle are tooth-like scales; the growth of these scales is controlled by many of the same genes that control the growth of human teeth! This image was prepared at the 2011 Woods Hole Embryology Course.