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Fish Classification

This document summarizes the evolution of vertebrates from jawless fish to modern bony fish. It describes the key characteristics of different classes of fish, including: - Jawless fish like hagfish and lampreys that were the earliest vertebrates and lacked jaws and fins. - Cartilaginous fish like sharks that had cartilage skeletons, fins, jaws and placoid scales. - Bony fish that are the largest living group of vertebrates with gill covers, swim bladders and highly maneuverable fins. This includes lobe-finned fish like lungfish and coelacanths, as well as the most common ray-finned fish.

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Bahauddin Baloch
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4K views15 pages

Fish Classification

This document summarizes the evolution of vertebrates from jawless fish to modern bony fish. It describes the key characteristics of different classes of fish, including: - Jawless fish like hagfish and lampreys that were the earliest vertebrates and lacked jaws and fins. - Cartilaginous fish like sharks that had cartilage skeletons, fins, jaws and placoid scales. - Bony fish that are the largest living group of vertebrates with gill covers, swim bladders and highly maneuverable fins. This includes lobe-finned fish like lungfish and coelacanths, as well as the most common ray-finned fish.

Uploaded by

Bahauddin Baloch
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Fishes

Vertebrate Evolution
• Oldest known vertebrate fossils
– Tadpole – like (6inches in length)
– Jawless fish were only vertebrates for more than
50 m.y.a
• Vertebrates (Subphylum Vertebrata)
– Backbone enclosing a nerve cord, or spinal cord

• Phylum Chordata
– Notochord
– Pharyngeal pouches
– Postanal tail
– Dorsal Nerve Chord
• Phylum Chordata
– Subphylum Vertebrata
– Super Class Agnatha Jawless fishes
• Class Myxini (Hagfishes)
• Class Cephalaspidomorphi (Lampreys)

– Class Chondrichthyes, Cartilaginous fishes, (Sharks,


Sharks and Rays, Ratfishes)

– Class Osteichthyes, Bony fishes


• Class Actinopterygii (Ray – finned)
• Class Sarcophterygii (Lobe – finned)
Fig. 8.1
Tab. 8.1
Class Agnatha: Jawless Fishes
• Hagfishes and lampreys
• lack jaws, most primitive of living fishes
• Feed by suction
• Lack paired fins and scales
•Hagfish (slime eels)
• No vertebrae
• Retains notochord
•Lampreys, freshwater
• Primitive Vertebral column composed of cartilage
Origin of Jaws and Paired Fins
• 450 m.y.a
• Paired fins increased fishes’ stability and
maneuverability
• Jaw allow to seize prey
• Jaws are thought to have evolved from 1st pair of
gill arches (support pharynx)
Class Chondrichthyes: Cartilaginous Fishes

•Sharks, rays, skates, and ratfishes

•Endoskeleton of cartilage

•Paired fins, movable jaws, gill slits

•Rough sandpaper – like skin

• placoid scales

• pointed tip that is directed backward

• same composition as teeth


Fig. 8.4
Super Class Osteichthyes: Bony Fish

• Largest group of living vertebrates


• Gills covered by operculum
• Usually swim bladder
• Highly maneuverable fins
• Cycloid scales
Superclass Osteichthyes: Bony Fish

• Class Sarcopterygii (lobed – fin finned)

• Class Actinopterygii (ray – finned)


Class Sarcopterygii (lobed – fin finned)
• Fins supported by main axis of bone
• Lungfishes (video)
– http://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/west-
african-lungfish/
– Modified swim bladder
– Breath air
Class Sarcopterygii (lobed – fin finned)
• Coelacanth
– Were thought to be extinct but were rediscovered in
West African waters
– Coelacanth species are thought to be ancestors of
amphibians
Class Actinopterygii (ray – finned)

• Most common of boney fish

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