FISHES

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 1

 Fishes
• All fishes retain four
(4) primitive characters:
• Streamlined body
• Vertical tail fin
• Gills for gas exchange
• Lateral line system,
• No ears

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 2

 Fishes
• Three traditional vertebrate classes
that remain aquatic.
 Class Bony Fishes
 Class Cartilaginous Fishes
 Class Jawless Fishes
• All three classes well adapted to
aquatic environment.

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 3

 Class Bony Fishes
• Also called “Ray-finned Fishes”
• ~30,000 species.
 Majority of living vertebrate species.
 Bony skeleton, well developed skull
 Fins supported by cartilage or bony “rays”
and minute scales (=lepidotrichia)
• paired fins:
• pectoral, pelvic
• median fins:
• dorsal, anal, caudal

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 4

 Bony Fishes
• Fins
• paired fins:
• pectoral, pelvic
• median fins:
• dorsal, anal, caudal

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 5

 Bony Fishes
• Bony dermal scales
• covered by thin epidermis
• NOT homologous to reptilian scales.
• Operculum covers gills; one gill slit each side.

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 6

 Bony Fishes
• Lungs, often modified to swim bladder.
• Examples:
• sturgeons
• gars
• catfish
• trout
• bass
• Northern pike
• American eel
• note paired fins, jaw, operculum

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 7

 Class Cartilaginous Fishes
• 400 - 600 spp.
• Skeleton of cartilage, bone lost.
 Fossil placoderms and jawless fishes had bone tissue,
prob. ancestral to both Cartilaginous & Bony fishes.

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 8

 Class Cartilaginous Fishes
• Cartilaginous skull poorly developed, esp. dorsal
to brain
• Fins supported by cartilage or horn-like rays

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 9

 Cartilaginous Fishes

• No ribs.
• No lungs or swim bladder.
• Separate gill slits, usually 5
• Placoid scales,
– tiny, tooth-like
• Enlarged at edge of mouth
 teeth
– Homologous to teeth in all
other vertebrates.

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 10

 Cartilaginous Fishes
• Sharks,
• Rays
 specialized flattened
sharks
 “wings” are pectoral fins

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 11

 Development of Jaws
• All animals studied so far are “Jawed Vertebrates”
• Jaws developed from an anterior gill arch,
 Allowed diverse diet

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 12

 Class Jawless Fishes
• Survivors of earliest vertebrates
• No jaws,
 can not close mouth
• No scales
• No paired fins, only median caudal fin
(continues dorsal & ventral to anus)
• Single median nostril on top of head
• Circular gill slits
 7 or 12 pairs on sides of pharynx.

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 13

 Jawless Fishes
• Hagfishes
 tentacles around mouth
 predators on worms,
mollusks
 scavengers
 20 spp. in 4 genera
• Lampreys
 circular mouth, no
tentacles
 filter feeders, or
 external parasites of bony
fishes
 30 spp. in 10 genera
02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 14
 Jawless Fishes
• Life cycle of sea lamprey
• Adult parasitic, feeding
stage
• Adults swim into small
freshwater streams to
breed
• Larvae live in sediment as
filter feeders up to seven
years
• Metamorphosis, migration
to lake or sea to become
parasitic adults

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 15

 Jawless Fishes
• Sea lamprey in the Great Lakes
• Lake Ontario since end of last Ice Age, prevented from entering
upper lakes
• Welland canal
• Sea lamprey devastated commercial fishing
• Control

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 16

 Overview of where we have been
• All animals studied to date belong to:
• Phylum Chordata
notochord
dorsal nerve cord
pharyngeal arches/clefts
• bear gills in fishes,
• modified to other structures in terrestrial animals
postanal tail

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 17

 Review
• Subphylum Vertebrata
Notochord reduced, replaced by bony or
cartilaginous vertebrae
• Some notochord tissue usually remains
Pharyngeal arches bear gills
• or developed into other organs: hyoid bone, larynx
Liver
Pancreas

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 18

 Review
• Subphylum Vertebrata
• 6 Classes:
• Jawless fishes
• Cartilaginous fishes
• Bony fishes
• Amphibians
• Reptiles including Birds
• Mammals

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 19

 Invertebrate Chordates

• Two more subphyla of Chordata, lack

distinguishing characters of Vertebrates:
 Subphylum Urochordata
• tunicates, sea squirts
 Subphylum Cephalochordata
• lancelets, amphioxus

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 20

 Subphylum Urochordata
• Adult is sessile
filter-feeder
• Larva shows all
characters of
Phylum Chordata

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 21

 Subphylum Cephalochordata
• Adult and larva show
characters of Phylum
Chordata
• Live in holes in sandy or
muddy bottoms
• Ciliated pharynx pulls in
water
• Filtered water exits atriopore
• Food directed to intestine ,
feces disposed through anus

02 Sept. 2014 Fishes.ppt 22