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CHAPTER
Chordates
24-1
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24-2
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Diversity
Overview
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“Fish” has many usages extending beyond
what are actually considered fishes today
(e.g., starfish, etc.)
A modern fish
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Fishes
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24-3
Aquatic vertebrate with gills, limbs (if present) in
the form of fins, and usually with a skin covered
in scales of dermal origin
Do not form a monophyletic group
In an evolutionary sense, can be defined as all
vertebrates that are not tetrapods
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Diversity
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24-4
Common ancestor of fishes is also an ancestor of
land vertebrates
Therefore in pure cladistics, would make land
vertebrates “fish”- a nontraditional and awkward
usage
Approximately 24,600 living species
 Include more species than all other vertebrates
combined
Adapted to live in medium 800 times denser than air
Can adjust to the salt and water balance of their
environment
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Diversity
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24-5
Gills are efficient at extracting oxygen from
water that has 1/20 the oxygen of air
Lateral line system detects water currents
and vibrations, a sense of “distant touch”
Evolution in an aquatic environment both
shaped and constrained its evolution
“Fish” refers to one or more individuals of
one species
“Fishes” refers to more than one species
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24-6
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Ancestry and Relationships of Major Groups of Fishes
History
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Descended from an unknown free-swimming
protochordate ancestor about 550 million
years ago
Earliest fish-like vertebrates: Group of
agnathan fishes
Agnathans
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24-7
Include extinct ostracoderms and living hagfishes
and lampreys
 Hagfishes lack vertebrae
 Lampreys have rudimentary vertebrae
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Ancestry and Relationships of Major Groups of Fishes
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Gnathostomes
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24-8
Included in subphylum Vertebrata because they
have a cranium and other vertebrate homologies
Unique enough to be assigned to separate
classes
Remaining fish have paired appendages and join
tetrapods as a monophyletic lineage of
gnathostomes
Appear in the Silurian fossil record with fully
formed jaws
No intermediate forms between agnathans are
known
The Devonian is called the Age of Fishes
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Ancestry and Relationships of Major Groups of Fishes
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One group, the placoderms, became extinct
in the Carboniferous and left no direct
descendants
Cartilaginous Fishes
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24-9
Lost heavy dermal armor and adopted skeleton of
cartilage
Flourished during the Devonian and
Carboniferous
Almost became extinct at end of the Paleozoic
Increased in numbers in the early Mesozoic,
diversifying to form a modern shark assemblage
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Ancestry and Relationships of Major Groups of Fishes
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Acanthodians
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24-10
Well represented in the Devonian
Became extinct by the lower Permian
Resemble bony fish but have heavy spines on all
fins except the caudal fin
Probably the sister group of bony fishes
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24-11
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Ancestry and Relationships of Major Groups of Fishes
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Bony Fishes
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24-12
Dominant fishes today
Two distinct lineages
 Ray-finned fishes
 Lobe-finned fishes
Ray-finned fishes radiated to form modern bony
fishes
Lobe-finned fishes are a relict group with few
species today
 Include the sister group of the tetrapods
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Living Jawless Fishes
Overview
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Living jawless fishes include hagfishes and
lampreys
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24-13
About 43 species of hagfishes are known and
about 41 species of lamprey are described
Members of both groups lack jaws, internal
ossification, scales, or paired fins
Both groups share porelike gill openings and an
eel-like body
Recent molecular analysis shows lampreys and
hagfishes forming a monophyletic unit
Many zoologists do not support this grouping thus
we take the view that hagfishes form the sister
group of a clade that includes lampreys and
gnathostomes
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24-14
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24-15
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Living Jawless Fishes
Class Myxini: Hagfishes
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Entirely marine
Scavengers and predators of annelids,
molluscs, dead or dying fishes, etc.
Enters dead or dying animal through orifice
or by digging inside using keratinized plates
on tongue
Nearly blind
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To provide leverage
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Locate food by an acute sense of smell and touch
Ties knot in tail and passes it forward to press
against prey
Special glands along body secrete fluid that
becomes slimy in contact with seawater
24-16
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Living Jawless Fishes
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Body fluids are in osmotic equilibrium with
seawater
Circulatory system includes three accessory
hearts in addition to a heart behind gills
Reproduction of Hagfishes
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24-17
Copenhagen Academy of Science offered a prize
over a century ago for information on hagfish
breeding habits………it remains unclaimed
In some species, females outnumber males by
100 to 1
Females produce small numbers of large, yolky
eggs 2-7 centimeters in diameter
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Living Jawless Fishes
Class Petromyzontida: Lampreys
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Diversity
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24-18
All lampreys in Northern Hemisphere belong to
the family Petromyzontidae
Marine lamprey Petromyzon marinus
 Occurs on both Atlantic coastlines
 Grows to a length of one meter
20 species of lampreys in North America
 Half belong to nonparasitic brook-dwelling
species
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24-19
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Living Jawless Fishes
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Reproduction and Development
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Ascend freshwater streams to breed
Marine forms are anadromous
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In North America
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24-20
Leave the sea as adults to spawn upstream
All spawn in winter or spring
Males build nest by lifting stones with oral discs
and using body vibrations
Female anchors to a rock and male attaches to her
head
As eggs are shed into nest, the male fertilizes them
Adults die soon thereafter
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Living Jawless Fishes
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24-21
Eggs hatch in two weeks into ammoceotes larvae
 Lives first on yolk supply and drifts
downstream to burrow into sandy areas
 Suspension-feeder until it metamorphoses into
an adult
 Change to an adult involves eruption of eyes,
keratinized teeth replacing the hood,
enlargement of fins, maturation of gonads and
modification of gill openings
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Living Jawless Fishes
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Parasitic Lampreys
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Marine, parasitic lampreys migrate to the sea
Other species remain in freshwater
Attach to a fish by a sucker-like mouth
Sharp teeth rasp through flesh as they suck fluids
Inject anticoagulant into a wound
When engorged, lamprey drops off but wound may
be fatal to fish
Parasitic freshwater adults live 1–2 years before
spawning and dying
Anadromous forms live 2–3 years
Nonparasitic lampreys do not feed
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24-22
Digestive tract degenerates as an adult
They spawn and die
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24-23
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Living Jawless Fishes
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Sea Lamprey Invasion of the Great Lakes
Region
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24-24
No lampreys were in the U. S. Great Lakes west of
Niagara Falls until the Welland Ship Canal was
deepened between 1913 and 1918
Sea lampreys moved first through Lake Erie to
Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior
Lampreys preferred lake trout
 Destroyed this commercial species along with
overfishing
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Living Jawless Fishes
Then rainbow trout, whitefish, lake herring,
chubs, and other species were destroyed
 Lamprey populations declined both from
depletion of food and control measures
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Chemical larvicides in spawning streams
 Release of sterile males
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24-25
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
Overview
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About 970 living species
Smaller and more ancient group
Well-developed sense organs, powerful jaws,
and predaceous habits helped them survive
True bone is completely absent throughout
the class
Phosphatized mineral tissues retained in
teeth, scales, and spines
Nearly all are marine
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Only 28 species live primarily in freshwater
After whales, sharks are the largest living
vertebrates, reaching 12 meters in length
24-26
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
Subclass Elasmobranchii: Sharks,
Skates and Rays
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13 living orders of elasmobranchs with about
937 total species described
Order Carcharhiniformes
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Contains the coastal tiger and bull sharks and the
hammerhead
Order Lamniformes
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24-27
Contains large, pelagic sharks such as the white
and mako shark
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24-28
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
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Order Squaliformes
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Order Rajiformes
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Contains dogfish sharks
Contain skates
Order Myliobatiformes
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24-29
Contains several groups of rays (stingrays, manta
rays, etc.)
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
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Form and Function
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24-30
Sharks are among the most gracefully
streamlined of fishes
 Body is fusiform
Thrust and lift provided by an asymmetrical
heterocercal tail
 Vertebral column turns upward and extends
into dorsal lobe of caudal fin
Fins include
 Paired pectoral and pelvic fins
 One or two median dorsal fins
 One median caudal fin
 Sometimes a median anal fin
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24-31
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
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24-32
In males, the medial part of the pelvic fin is
modified to form a clasper used in copulation
Paired nostrils are anterior to mouth
Lateral eyes are lidless
Behind each eye is a spiracle
 Remnant of the first gill slit
Tough, leathery skin with placoid scales
 Reduce water turbulence
Detect prey at a distance by large olfactory
organs sensitive to one part per 10 billion
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24-33
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
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24-34
Nostrils to each side of the hammerhead shark may
improve stereo-olfaction
Prey may also be located from long distances
sensing low frequency vibrations in the lateral line
 Consists of neuromasts in interconnected tubes
and pores on side of body
At close range, switch to vision
 Most have excellent vision even in dimly lit water
Up close, sharks are guided by bioelectric fields
that surround all animals
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24-35
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
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24-36
Electroreceptors, the ampullae of Lorenzini, are
located on the shark’s head
Upper and lower jaws equipped with sharp,
triangular teeth that are constantly replaced
Mouth opens into large pharynx, containing
openings to gill slits and spiracles
Short esophagus runs to stomach
Liver and pancreas open into short, straight
intestine
Spiral valve in intestine slows passage of food
and increases absorptive area
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24-37
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
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Rectal gland secretes NaCl and assists the
opisthonephric kidney
Heart chambers provide standard circulatory flow
through gills and body
Elasmobranchs retain nitrogenous compounds in
the blood
 Raises blood solute concentrations and
eliminates the osmotic inequality between
blood and seawater
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
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Reproduction and Development
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24-39
Fertilization is internal
Maternal support of embryo is variable
 Includes oviparous, ovoviviparous, and
viviparous species
“Mermaid’s purse”
 Horny capsule encasing eggs laid by some
oviparous species
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
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Form and Function of Rays
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24-40
More than half of elasmobranchs are rays
Most specialized for benthic life
Dorsoventrally flattened body and enlarged
pectoral fins used to propel themselves
Respiratory water enters through large spiracles on
top of the head
Teeth adapted for crushing prey
 Molluscs, crustaceans, and sometimes small fish
Stingrays
 Have whiplike tail with spines and venom glands
Electric rays
 Have large electric organs on each side of head
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24-41
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24-42
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Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes
Subclass Holocephali: Chimeras
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Small subclass
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Fossil chimaeras
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Remnants of a line that diverged from the earliest
shark lineage
33 extant species
First appeared in the Carboniferous, reached a
zenith in the Cretaceous and early Tertiary, and
then declined
Mouth lacks teeth
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24-43
Equipped with large flat plates for crushing food
Upper jaw fused to the cranium
Feed on seaweed, molluscs, echinoderms,
crustaceans, and fish
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24-44
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Osteichthyes: Bony Fishes
Origin, Evolution and Diversity
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In early to middle Silurian, a lineage of fishes
with bony endoskeletons gave rise to a clade
that contains 96% of living fishes and all
living tetrapods
3 features unite bony fishes and tetrapod
descendants
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24-45
Endochondral bone replaces cartilage during
development
Lung or swim bladder is present
 Evolved as an extension of gut
Have several cranial and dental characters unique
to clade
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24-46
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Osteichthyes: Bony Fishes
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Do not define a natural group and is a term of
convenience rather than a valid taxon
Bony operculum and branchiostegal rays
associate them with acanthodians
By the middle Devonian, bony fishes developed
into 2 major lineages
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Operculum increased respiratory efficiency
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24-47
Ray-finned fishes, class Actinopterygii, radiated to form
modern bony fishes
Lobe-finned fishes, class Sarcopterygii, include
lungfishes and the coelacanth
Helped draw water across gills
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Osteichthyes: Bony Fishes
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24-48
Gas-filled structure off the esophagus
 Helped in buoyancy and also in hypoxic waters
 In fishes that use these pouches for respiration
 Pouches are called lungs
 In fishes that use these pouches for buoyancy
 Pouches are called swim bladders
Specialization of jaw musculature improved
feeding
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Class Actinopterygii: Ray-finned Fishes
Diversity
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Over 27,000 species of ray-finned fishes
Palaeoniscids
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24-49
Earliest forms
Small, had large eyes, a heterocercal caudal tail,
and interlocking scales with an outer layer of
ganoin
Single dorsal fin and numerous bony rays derived
from scales stacked end to end
Fossils have been found as early as the late
Silurian
Flourished throughout the late Paleozoic
Distinct from lobe-finned fishes and saw the
ostracoderms, etc. decline
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24-50
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24-51
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24-52
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Class Actinopterygii: Ray-finned Fishes
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Bichirs
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In the clade Cladista
Have lungs, heavy ganoid scales, and other
characteristics similar to the palaeoniscids
16 species of which all live in the freshwaters of
Africa
Chondrosteons
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24-53
27 species of freshwater and anadromous
sturgeons and paddlefishes
Dam construction, overfishing, and pollution have
led to their decline
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24-54
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Class Actinopterygii: Ray-finned Fishes
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Neopterygians
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24-55
Appeared in late Permian and radiated extensively
during the Mesozoic
During the Mesozoic, one lineage gave rise to the
modern bony fishes: Teleost
 2 surviving early neopterygians are the bowfin
and gars
 Gars and bowfin gulp air and use the
vascularized swim bladder to supplement gills
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24-56
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Class Actinopterygii: Ray-finned Fishes
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Teleosts
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24-57
Constitute 96% of all living fishes and half of all
vertebrates
Range from 10 millimeters to 17 meters long, and
up to 900 kilograms in weight
Survive from 5,200 meters altitude in Tibet to
8,000 meters below the ocean surface
Some can live in hot springs at 44o C while others
survive under Antarctic ice at - 2o C
Some live in salt concentrations three times
seawater
Others found swamps devoid of oxygen
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24-58
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Class Actinopterygii: Ray-finned Fishes
Morphological Trends
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Heavy dermal armor replaced by light, thin,
flexible cycloid and ctenoid scales
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Fins changed to provide greater mobility and
serve a variety of functions
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Some eels, catfishes, and others lost scales
Increased mobility from shedding armor helps fish
avoid predators and improved feeding efficiency
Braking, streamlining, and social communication
Homocercal tail allowed greater speed and
buoyancy
Jaw changed to increase suctioning and
protrusion to secure food
24-59
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Class Sarcopterygii: Lobe-finned Fishes
Diversity
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Ancestor of tetrapods
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Early sarcopterygians
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Group of extinct sarcopterygian fishes called
rhipdistians
Had lungs, gills, and a heterocercal-type tail
During the Paleozoic, tail became a symmetrical
diphycercal tail
Had powerful jaws, heavy, enameled scales with a
dentine-like material called cosmine, and strong,
fleshy, paired lobed fins
Today, clade is represented by 8 fish species
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24-60
6 species of lungfishes and 2 species of coelacanths
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24-61
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24-62
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Class Sarcopterygii: Lobe-finned Fishes
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Lungfish
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24-63
Australia lungfishes, unlike close relatives, rely
on gill respiration and cannot survive long out of
water
South American and African lungfish can live out
of water for long periods of time
Rhipidistians and the coelacanth were termed
crossopterygian: polyphyletic group no longer
used
Rhipidistians flourished in late Paleozoic and then
became extinct
 Include ancestors of tetrapods
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Class Sarcopterygii: Lobe-finned Fishes
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The Coelacanth
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24-64
Arose in the Devonian, radiated, reached a peak in
the Mesozoic, and dramatically declined
Thought to be extinct 70 million years, a specimen
was dredged up in 1938
More were caught off coast of the Comoro Islands
and in Indonesia
Living coelacanth is a descendant of Devonian
freshwater stock
Tail is diphycercal with a small lobe between the
upper and lower caudal lobes
Young coelacanths born fully formed after
hatching from eggs up to 9 cm in diameter
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Locomotion in Water
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Speed
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Most fishes swim maximally at ten body lengths
per second
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Larger fish therefore swims faster
Short bursts of speed are possible for a few
seconds
Mechanism
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Trunk and tail musculature propels a fish
Muscles are arranged in zigzag bands called
myomeres
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24-65
Have the shape of a W on the side of fish
Internally the bands are folded and nested
Each myomere pulls on several vertebrae
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24-66
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24-67
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Fish undulations move backward against the water
Produces a reactive force with two parts
Thrust pushes fish forward and overcomes drag
Lateral force makes the fish’s head “yaw”
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Large and rigid head minimizes yaw
Swaying body generates too much drag for fast
speed
Fast fish are less flexible and generate all thrust with
caudal fins
Fast oceanic fish have swept-back, sickle-like tail
fins, similar to high-aspect ratio wings of birds
24-68
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24-69
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Economy
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24-70
Swimming is the most economical form of motion
because water buoys the animal
Energy cost per kilogram of body weight for
traveling one kilometer is 0.39 Kcal for swimming,
1.45 Kcal for flying, and 5.43 for walking
Yet to be determined how aquatic animals can
move through water with little turbulence
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Neutral Buoyancy and the Swim Bladder
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Fish are slightly heavier than water
To keep from sinking, a shark must
continually move forward
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Fins keep it “angled up”
Shark liver has a special fatty hydrocarbon,
or squaline, that acts to keep the shark a
little buoyant
Swim bladder, as a gas-filled space, is the
most efficient flotation device
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Swim bladder arose from paired lungs of
primitive Devonian bony fishes
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Absent in tunas, some abyssal fishes, and most
bottom dwellers
Fish controls depth by adjusting volume of gas in
swim bladder
Due to pressure, as a fish descends, the bladder
is compressed making the total density of the fish
greater
As a fish ascends, the bladder expands making
the fish lighter and it will rise ever faster
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Gas is removed in 2 ways
Primitive physostomous fishes
 Pneumatic duct connecting swim bladder and
esophagus
Advanced teleosts are physoclistous
 Pneumatic duct is lost and gas must be
secreted into the blood from a vascularized
area
Both types require gas to be secreted into the
bladder from the blood via the gas gland
A network of capillaries, rete mirabile, is a
countercurrent exchange system used to trap
gases
Gas gland secretes lactic acid that forces
hemoglobin to release its load of oxygen
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Rete capillaries are short in surface-dwelling fish
and very long in deep-sea fishes
A few shallow-water-inhabiting physostomes gulp
air to fill the swim bladder
Even at 2400 meters, the bladder is inflated,
mostly with oxygen, but also with variable
amounts of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, argon, and
even some carbon monoxide, and the pressure
within the air bladder must exceed 240
atmospheres
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Hearing and Weberian Ossicles
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Fish, like other vertebrates, detect sounds as
vibrations in the inner ear.
A teleost group, ostariophysans
 Possess Weberian ossicles
 Allow them to hear faint sounds over a
much broader range than other teleosts
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Respiration
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Fish gills are filaments with thin epidermal
membranes folded into plate-like lamellae
Gills are inside the pharyngeal cavity and
covered with a movable flap, the operculum
Operculum protects delicate gill filaments
and streamlines body
Pumping action by operculum helps move
water through gills
Although it appears pulsatile, water flow over
gills is continuous
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Water flow is opposite to the blood flow
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Countercurrent exchange maximizes exchange of
gases
Some bony fishes remove 85% of the oxygen
from water passing over gills
Some active fishes use ram ventilation
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Forward movement is sufficient to force water
across gills
Such fishes are asphyxiated in a restrictive
aquarium even if the water is saturated with
oxygen
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Fishes Out of Water
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Lungs of lungfishes allow them to respire in air
Eels can wriggle over land during rainy weather
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Use skin as major respiratory surface
A bowfin uses gills at cooler temperatures and
lung-like swim bladder at higher temperatures
Electric eel has degenerate gills and gulps air
through vascular mouth cavity
Indian climbing perch spends most of its time on
land, breathing air in special chambers
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Osmotic Regulation
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Freshwater is hypotonic to fish blood
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Water enters body and salt is lost by diffusion
Scaled and mucous-covered body is mostly
impermeable, but gills allow water and salt fluxes
Freshwater fishes are hyperosmotic
regulators
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Opisthonephric kidney pumps excess water out
Special salt-absorbing cells located in epithelium
actively move salt ions from water into fishes’
blood
Systems are efficient
 Freshwater fish devote little energy to
maintaining osmotic balance
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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About 90% of bony fishes are restricted to
either freshwater or seawater habitats
Euryhaline fishes live in estuaries where
salinity fluctuates throughout day
Marine bony fishes are hypoosmotic
regulators
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Blood is hypotonic to seawater
Tend to lose water and gain salt
 Risks “drying out”
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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To compensate for water loss, a marine teleost
drinks seawater
 Brings in more unneeded salt
 Carried by blood to gills and secreted by
special salt-secretory cells
Divalent ions of magnesium, sulfate and calcium
are left in intestine and leave body with the feces
Some divalent ions enter bloodstream and are
excreted by kidney by tubular secretion
 Glomeruli are small or missing
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Feeding Behavior
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Fish devote most of their time searching for
food to eat and eating
With the evolution of jaws
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Most fish are carnivores
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Fish left a passive filter-feeding life and entered a
predator-prey battle
Feed on zooplankton, insect larvae, and other
aquatic animals
Most fish do not chew food
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Would block water flow across the gills
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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A few can briefly crack prey items with teeth,
or have molar-like teeth in throat
Most swallow food whole
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Some are herbivores
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Easy with water pressure that sweeps food in
when the mouth opens
Eat plants and algae
Crucial intermediates in food chain
Suspension feeders
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Crop abundant microorganisms of the sea
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Many plankton feeders swim in large schools
and using gill rakers to strain food
Omnivores feed on both plants and animals
Scavengers feed on organic debris
Detritovores consume fine particulate
organic matter
Parasitic fishes suck body fluids of other
fishes
Digestion follows the vertebrate plan
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A few lack stomachs
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Intestine tends to be shorter in carnivores
and long and coiled in herbivores
Stomach primarily stores food
Intestine digests and absorbs nutrients
Teleost fishes have pyloric ceca
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Apparently for fat absorption
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Migration
Eels
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Have presented a life history puzzle for
centuries
Catadromous, developing to maturity in
freshwater but migrating to sea to spawn
In fall, adults swim downriver to the sea to
spawn, but none return
In spring, many young eels or “elvers”
appear in coastal waters and swim upstream
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Grassi and Calandruccio (1896) reported that
elvers were advanced juveniles
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True larval eels were tiny leaf-shaped, and
transparent
Johann Schmidt traced eel migrations by
examining plankton nets from commercial
fishermen
Adult eels were tracked to the Sargasso Sea
southeast of Bermuda
At depths of 300 meters or more, eels spawn
and die
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Minute larvae journey back to the streams of
Europe and North America
American eel larvae make trip back in 8
months since the Sargasso Sea is much
closer to American coastline, whereas the
European eel larvae take three years
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Homing Salmon
 Salmon are anadromous
 Grow up in sea but return to freshwater to
spawn
 6 species of Pacific salmon and 1 Atlantic
salmon migrates
 Atlantic salmon makes repeated spawning
runs
 Pacific species spawn once and die
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Pacific species of sockeye salmon
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Migrates downstream
Roams the Pacific for 4 years
Returns to spawn in headwaters of parents’
stream
Young fish are imprinted on odor of their stream
May navigate to stream mouth by sensing
magnetic field of the earth or angle of the sun,
and then smelling their way home
Salmon are endangered by stream
degradation from logging, pollution and
hydroelectric dams
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
Reproduction and Growth
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Most fishes are dioecious with external
fertilization and external development
Guppies and mollies represent
ovoviviparous fish that develop in ovarian
cavity
Some sharks are viviparous with some kind
of placental attachment to nourish young
Most oviparous pelagic fish lay huge
numbers of eggs
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Female cod may release 4–6 million eggs
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Near-shore and bottom-dwelling species lay
larger, typically yolky, nonbuoyant and
adhesive eggs
Some bury eggs
Many attach eggs to vegetation
Some incubate eggs in their mouth
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Many benthic spawners guard eggs
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Freshwater fishes produce nonbuoyant eggs
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Male is usually the guard
The more care provided, the fewer the eggs
produced
Freshwater fishes may have elaborate mating
dances before spawning
Egg soon takes up water, the outer layer
hardens and cleavage occurs
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Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
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Blastoderm develops and yolk is consumed
Fish hatches carrying a semitransparent yolk
sac to supply food until it can forage
Change from larva to adult may be dramatic
in body shape, fins, color patterns, etc.
Growth is temperature dependent
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Warmer fish grow more rapidly
Annual rings on scales, otoliths, etc. reflect
seasonal growth cycles
Most fish continue to grow throughout life
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