Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1991
Publication Title
Limnology and Oceanography
ISSN
0024-3590
Volume
36
Issue/No.
6
First Page
1227
Last Page
1232
Abstract
Marine teleostean fish are hypo-osmotic to seawater. As part of a multiorgan osmoregulatory strategy they drink seawater and selectively absorb water and minerals across the intestinal epithelium. Notably, divalent cations (Ca2+ and Mg2-) are left behind. We report here that in the gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta, the ionic by-products of osmoregulation in the intestine contribute to de novo formation of a carbonate mineral, tentatively identified as calcian kutnohorite. Our data suggest that intestinal mineralization is a general feature of osmoregulation in marine teleosts and that this process is an unrecognized and possibly substantial source of marine carbonate sediments.
NSUWorks Citation
Patrick J. Walsh, Patricia Blackwelder, Kenneth A. Gill, Eva Danulat, and Thomas P. Mommsen. 1991. Carbonate Deposits in Marine Fish Intestines: A New Source of Biomineralization .Limnology and Oceanography , (6) : 1227 -1232. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/761.
DOI
10.4319/lo.1991.36.6.1227
Comments
©1991, by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc.