Operculum
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<fishfyi-glossary slug="operculum"></fishfyi-glossary>Definition
The bony plate covering and protecting the gills in bony fish, which opens and closes to facilitate water flow over the gill filaments during respiration.
Ausführliche Erklärung
The operculum is composed of four bones: opercle, preopercle, interopercle, and subopercle. It acts as a pump in the two-stroke gill-ventilation cycle: the mouth opens and operculum closes to draw water in; then the mouth closes and operculum opens to expel water across the gill filaments. In many species its rear edge is armed with a sharp opercular spine for defense. Opercular morphology is a key character in fish taxonomy, and opercular bone surface features (circuli, annuli) are used to estimate age in many commercial species.