Spatial distribution of twitch and tonic fibres in a snake muscle one myofibre thick.

The spatial distribution of twitch and tonic fibres in a snake muscle one myofibre thick (ventral costocutaneous) has been investigated. It was found that small groups of like fibres were favoured at the expense of larger groups when compared with sequences generated by a computer in which fibres were distributed randomly. The number of times that like fibres occurred next to one another was used as another measure of their spatial distribution. The number of adjacencies of like fibres was less than the expected number of adjacencies determined both by random sequences and by probability theory. The expected number of adjacencies determined by means of random sequences and a priori probability theory were almost identical. This dispersion of like fibres may reflect processes that occur during muscle development and may have functional implications.