Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Coral Reef Arks: An In Situ Mesocosm and Toolkit for Assembling Reef Communities
Published on: January 6, 2023
An evaluation of a double-tailed deformity in a coral-reef surgeonfish Acanthurus nigrofuscus (Acanthuridae) using
C H R Goatley1, S Wroe1, S B Tebbett2
1Function, Evolution and Anatomy Research (FEAR) Lab and Palaeoscience Research Centre, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, 2351, Australia.
Abstract:
X-ray micro-computed tomography scans were used to examine the caudal-fin structure of an unusual double-tailed deformity in an adult brown surgeonfish Acanthurus nigrofuscus from the Great Barrier Reef. In both this case and in a similar double-tailed deformity in a juvenile Tomini surgeonfish Ctenochaetus tominiensis from the Philippines, the caudal fin was duplicated along the dorsoventral axis. Detailed examination of the A. nigrofuscus specimen revealed that the deformity was associated with duplication and reflection of the hypural plates and the posterior vertebrae, yet the fish survived to adulthood, indicating that the effects of duplication on survival may be limited.
Related Concept Videos
Computed Tomography
The technique was invented in the 1970s and is based on the principle that as X-rays pass through the body, they are absorbed or reflected at different levels. In the technique, a patient lies on a motorized platform while a computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanner rotates...
Imaging Studies III: Computed Tomography
Plastic Deformations
Plastic Deformations
Temperature Dependent Deformation
Deformations in a Symmetric Member in Bending
When the member is segmented into tiny cubic elements, it is observed that the primary stress...

