Normal table of postembryonic zebrafish development: Staging by externally visible anatomy of the living fish
Open accessAbstract
The zebrafish is a premier model organism yet lacks a system for assigning postembryonic fish to developmental stages. To provide such a staging series, we describe postembryonic changes in several traits that are visible under brightfield illumination or through vital staining and epiflourescent illumination. These include the swim bladder, median and pelvic fins, pigment pattern, scale formation, larval fin fold, and skeleton. We further identify milestones for placing postembryonic fish into discrete stages. We relate these milestones to changes in size and age and show that size is a better indicator of developmental progress than is age. We also examine how relationships between size and developmental progress vary with temperature and density, and we document the effects of histological processing on size. To facilitate postembryonic staging, we provide images of reference individuals that have attained specific developmental milestones and are of defined sizes. Finally, we provide guidelines for reporting stages that provide information on both discrete and continuous changes in growth and development. Developmental Dynamics 238:2975–3015, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
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In fish of 6.0 mm SSL and 6.5 SSL, which have only a single interstripe and very few adult melanophores, only disordered-crystallotype iridophores were observed.
“In fish of 6.0 mm standardized standard length (SSL) and 6.5 SSL, which have only a single interstripe and very few adult melanophores24, we observed only disordered-crystallotype iridophores (having high-angular distribution diffraction patterns of the (012) plane; Fig. 4d, and Supplementary Figs. 14 and 15)”
From In situ differentiation of iridophore crystallotypes underlies zebrafish stripe patterning (2020) · cites this paper as [24]
Analyses controlled for variation in standard length, a proxy for stage of development.
“after controlling for variation in standard length (SL), a proxy for stage of development (41)”
From Agouti and BMP signaling drive a naturally occurring fate conversion of melanophores to leucophores in zebrafish (2025) · cites this paper as [41]
Iridophores within interstripes tended to divide along an anterior-posterior plane.
“Moreover, iridophores within interstripes tended to divide along an anterior–posterior plane, consistent with the known faster growth along this axis than dorsoventrally24 (Supplementary Figs. 1a and 2b).”
From In situ differentiation of iridophore crystallotypes underlies zebrafish stripe patterning (2020) · cites this paper as [24]
Citation 24 is attached to the statement that anterior–posterior growth is faster than dorsoventral growth, rather than to the authors’ observation of iridophore division. The paper’s “Measurements of Larval Size” section compares length and height measures but does not state which axis grows faster. Its pigment-pattern section describes where iridophores appear, not their division orientation. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.70)
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Cites
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- Authors
- Parichy, D. M., Elizondo, M. R., Mills, M. G., Gordon, T. N., & Engeszer, R. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Parichy, David M.
- Venue
- Developmental Dynamics
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-11-04
- Volume
- 238
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 2975-3015
- ISSN
- 1058-8388 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0177
- PMC
- PMC3030279
- OpenAlex
- W1978529094
- Cited by
- 832
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 76 · 2024: 63 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 77 · 2020: 78 · 2019: 80 · 2018: 70 · 2017: 41 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 33 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 8.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Developmental Dynamics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03HD050210, R03 HD050201, R01HD050201)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Aquatic Science › Fish Biology and Ecology Studies
- Keywords
- zebrafish, postembryonic development, developmental staging, larval morphology, swim bladder, fin development, pigmentation patterns, scaling, skeleton, body size, temperature effects, density effects, histological processing, vital staining, epifluorescence
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Body Weights and Measures, Bone and Bones, Bone Development, Embryo, Nonmammalian, Extremities, Health Planning Guidelines, Life Cycle Stages, Phenotype, Skin Pigmentation, Statistics as Topic, Zebrafish
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