Regeneration of Tubercles on the Limbs of Uca pugilator and Effects of Mercury and Cadmium on Their Growth

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Abstract
The first walking leg behind the major chela of male fiddler crabs, Uca pugilator, has characteristic fields of tubercles on the anterior distal face of the merus and on the carpus. In a population of crabs from Southampton, New York, the average number of meral tubercles was 28.7 .+-. 1.37. However, the number dropped to 10.1 .+-. 0.86 in limbs that had regenerated in clean sea water and was even lower in limbs that regenerated in mercuric chloride (6.9 .+-. 1.15), cadmium chloride (4.7 .+-. 1.3), and methylmercury (4.4 .+-. 0.51). These results provide an example of differences between a regenerated appendage and an original appendage, and of morphological changes caused by toxicant exposure.