Talk:Scale (zoology)
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This article doesn't seem to cover the scales found on swordfish, which (as far as I know) do not fit into the normal categories of fish scales.
- "Ichthyologists recognize four types of fish scale. The kosher variety of scales are cycloid (round) and ctenoid (comblike). The ganoid scale found on sturgeon, or the placoid scale of the shark are specifically excluded from the Biblical term kaskeses since they are not 'removable' scales without tearing the skin from the flesh. Even an educated layman would not see any similarity between the heavy bony plates of the sturgeon or the needle-like projections on the shark skin and the classic kosher scale of the whitefish or carp.
- "In Fishery leaflet #531, U.S. Dept. of Interior, Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Wash. D.C., it states 'swordfish during early juvenile stage of life (up to 8 inches long), have "scales" that are markedly specialized and rather unique. They are in the form of bony tubercules or expanded compressed platelike bodies. These scales are rough, having spinous projections at the surface and they do not overlap one another as the scales in most fish do. With growth the scales disappear and the adult fish including those sold commercially have no scales.'
- Excerpted from a Jewish article on the kosher status of swordfish.
- Why swordfish in unclean
[edit] Expand please!
This page has so little information that I'd consider it a stub. If anyone could expand the definition of the types of scale, add references, and something on the function and Homology (biology) of scales that would be great. Ewjw 07:57, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
