Fig. 3. Representative diagrams showing dorsoventral and lateral deformations of the caudal tailstock of one individual from each of the different life-history stages under various loads. The vertical line represents the center of the dorsal fin and the head is pointing to the right in all images. The lines showing deformation of the tailstock depict the central axis of the animal, as determined by positions 2, 4, 6 and 8 as described in Materials and methods. The direction and applied load are listed next to the resultant deformation, while the neutral line shows the posture of the animal with no applied load. (A) Dorsal view of lateral deformation for loads ranging from 0 to 49 N. In the fetus, bending to the right occurred freely, with no applied load (R no load), while maximum deformation (R max. load) occurred with the application of a load too small to be quantified by our apparatus. (B) Lateral view of dorsoventral deformations for loads ranging from 0 to 66.6 N. Note that the images are not to scale. L, left; R, right; D, dorsal; V, ventral; TL, total body length (cm).