Abstract
The developmental process of all osteological elements except the scale in the red sea bream, Pagrus major, was described from prelarvae to late juveniles.The larvae at first-feeding stage exhibited only some elements of head skeleton and pectoral fin-supports, which were mostly cartilaginous structures except the maxillary and cleithrum.The completion of osteological structures was characterized by the formation of accessory cartilages 7 and 8 of the caudal skeleton and the ossification of middle radials of dorsal and anal fin-supports.Reared and wild specimens reaching this stage seemed to be different in size.An attempt to summarize the osteological development was made on the basis of the counts of considerable changes, e.g., the initial appearance of cartilage, the full complement of cartilages, the beginning of ossification and the full complement of ossified structures for respective elements.A histogram of those counts against total length consisted of several peaks suggesting the ontogenetic intervals in this species.
