Somitomeres in the chick tail bud: an SEM study

In the chick embryo the final number of somites is achieved at about stage 22 of Hamburger and Hamilton. By this time the neural tube and notochord have reached the tip of the tail bud but some paraxial mesoderm remains unsegmented. In this study using scanning electron microscopy we show that somitomeres are present in this mesoderm. This indicates that the terminal paraxial mesoderm of the tail bud may have the potential to form supplementary somites, though we do not as yet know what prohibits the completion of segmentation to the tip.