For plausibility reasons gravity should influence the embryonic development of gravity receptors. Yet, evaluations of photographs taken from the surface of cut deep-frozen objects by incident light show no aberration of the shape of the whole vestibulum and of the shape, density, size and position of the otolith membrane in larvae developed under near-zero g (NEXPA-BW-STATEX in D1-Mission).
The further evaluation of the “weightless-larvae” revealed a probably not yet described statolith-like formation in the dorsal wall of the vestibulum. In the weightless larvae this formation outnumbers, also qualitatively, strongly the 1-g controls.
An extra result is the lack of striking effects of cosmic radiation on the embryonic development of the flown eggs.
The swimming behavior of the larvae which was observed about one hour after landing of the Space Shuttle showed a typical anomaly (loop swimming), which is known from larvae developed on the clinostat or from fish flown aboard Apollo capsules. 相似文献