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Although placental diversity in mammals received growing attention in the 1600s through the early 1800s, placentation was not documented in reptiles until the mid-19th century. In his classic 1855 study on a viviparous lizard, Cesare Studiati (University of Pisa) described a structural/functional arrangement of fetal and maternal tissues that meets contemporary criteria for recognition of placentation. Through the fortuitous selection of a highly placentotrophic species, Chalcides chalcides, Studiati recognized the functional role of placental tissues in provision of oxygen as well as nutrients. Although Studiati worked in a pre-evolutionary milieu and without the benefits of histological techniques, his findings revealed that viviparous reptiles could exhibit placental specializations that paralleled those of mammals. Accordingly, his classic paper initiated a highly productive body of research that has continued to the present and highlighted specializations of a species that has figured importantly in placental research. |
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