Turtle Epidermis: Electron Microscopic Observations on a Granular Component of Malpighian Cells

Abstract

The structure of epidermis from snakes and lizards (order Squamata) has recently received considerable attention (Ernst and Ruiba11966; Bryant, Breathnach, and Bellairs 1967; Roth and Jones 1967; Flaxman et al. 1968; Maderson 1968). Epidermis from these reptiles is characterized by periodic shedding of the horny layer. Little attention has been given, however, to the epidermis of turtles (order Chelonia), which is not renewed periodically but is replaced continuously (Spearman 1966). The process of epidermal keratinization appears to be less complex in the turtle than in snakes and lizards in which epidermis often is stratified by more than one generation of epithelial cells.