Further evidence of continuity between elliptical and disc galaxies

The behaviour of the isophotes of the E galaxies in a new photometric sample of 33 early-type galaxies belonging to the Virgo cluster is compared to that of the SO galaxies. Almost all objects flatter than b/a ≅ 0.3 are found to exhibit 'pointed' (or 'lemon-shaped') isophotes irrespective of their Hubble class, while almost none do if rounder than the same limit. This observation is used to support the incipient scenario in which a large fraction (∼ 1/2) of E galaxies - the so-called 'disky ellipticals' - populates one end of a disc-to-bulge sequence including SO and spiral galaxies. (author)