Vertebrate (AKA Craniata) Synapomorphies:

- Bone/cartilage Endoskeleton
Muscles to attach
Continuous growth
Grow bigger than invertebrates bc internal structural framework
Cartilage, flexible framework strengthened with phosphorous and calcium
salts (Eg ear and knees) -evolution- bone, hard and vascular, developed

- Vertebrae – (usually)
Common ancestor of vertebrates have vertebrae
- Distinct head
Cranium
Tripartite brain (m: 3 part brain)
Specialised sense organs (m: eyes, ears, etc) tf more complex neurological
system than invertebrates
- Chambered heart
Vertebrates circulation is more efficient bc of muscular chamber heart can
pump blood around body quickly
Supports higher metabolic rate -> bigger and activer

2 chambered heart (number of chambers of heart varies across

vertebrates)

- Muscularised gut
Move food through gut using muscular contractions
- Muscularised pharynx with slits and gills
Originally a filter feeding organ in early chordates -> pump that move
water and things through early vertebrates
lost/reduced in terrestrial vertebrates
- Paired kidneys
Waste function
- Adaptive immunity (Vertebrate specific)
Immune sys has memory (eg covid vaccine) ; humans have innate immune
sys where kill microbes come into contact
- New embryonic tissues
 Vertebrate embryos have multiple layers of embryonic tissue in their
Blastula and that means have lots of diff structures that can come from the
embryos beyond the invertebrates
These different structures in early embryos lead to Cranial neural crest
cells and placodes which are vertebrate – specific, allows morphological
development of a range of diff traits (Eg us neural crest cells migrate to
diff bits of embryo to form diff parts of skull and placodes form eg
olfactory emphelim in nose)

Phylogeny tree

Synapomorphies (^arrow)

Monophyletic group vs Paraphyletic group

 - Monophyletic group: group of all organisms descended from a single common
ancestor (Red taxon form a single clade^ derive from a common ancestor)
*HAS TO INCLUDE ALL THE ORGANISM IF NOT PARAPHYLETIC : ↓orange
box is a Paraphyletic group bc doesn’t include tetrapods and so not ALL
organism are included, lower arrow shows common ancestor

- Paraphyletic group: group of organisms that share a common ancestor but not
including all the descendants of that ancestor (Red taxon share a common
ancestor but doesn’t include some of its relatives)

Fishes
- Paraphyletic group
 They and we share a common ancestor tf is a term of convenience to
describe all vertebrates that are not tetrapods (tetrapods: mammals,
birds, reptiles and amphibians
- Fishes originated 550 mya, tf earliest vertebrates. Age of Palezoic where there
was a great explosion of fish diversity
- 50 % of vertebrates are fishes and few tetrapods

Relationships between the major taxonomic groups of fishes

- 35,000 described species, and counting
- Abundance declining bc human induced climate change etc

Fish features
- Aquatic
- Gills: highly folded organ
Bony fish (eg goldfish while sharks are cartilaginous fish) has:

Operculum (cover over gills)

Pushes water over its gills
No operculum fishes, Chondrichthyans
Pumping (pharynx) or continuous swimming
Sharks has gill slits, others use mouth, others
continuously swim so water keeps flowing to their gills
Underneath are gills:
made of filaments with little platelike lamellae giving it a
massive surface area, tf gills are organ for respiratory gas exchange
where it takes In oxygen and excretes co2

Countercurrent exchange where water flows in opposite

direction to the blood tf efficient at exchanging co2 and oxygen
Most efficient respiratory device in any animal, water has
5% of oxygen in the air since it has low amts it means gills has to
be efficient tf it has all sorts of adaptations like increase surface
area and countercurrent exchange
- Appendages (if present) are fins not limbs
Seahorse lost its fins and swim with other mechanism
- Skin usually covered in scales of dermal origin
Seahorse has no scales
- Lateral line system
Sensory system detecting water currents and vibrations
Fish specific adaptation
Synapomorphies of the major taxonomic groups of fishes (Agnatha, Chondrichthyes,
Actinopterygii, Sarcopterygii)

Adaptations of fishes to their aquatic environment

Agnathans

- Earliest fishes
- Extant groups (m: those that still surviving today):
Hagfishes (Myxini)
 Myxini = “slime fish” (produce slime which is an antipredator
defence since its hard to hold a slimy fish)

Several vertebrate traits lost

Lost vertebrae and eye lens
Nearly blind but have acute smell and sense of touch
Lots of them are scavengers, eg whale carcass on bottom of
ocean attracts them where they tie themselves (a knot) to carcass
and rip off chunks off flesh

Body fluids isosmotic (m: having the same osmotic pressure) with
seawater
Unusual for vertebrates, common in marine invertebrates

4 Hearts
1 main heart
3 accessory heart behind gills
Lampreys (Petromyzontida)
Petromyzontida = “stone sucking”
Ammocoete larva ( resemble ammocoetes)
50% parasitic
- Features
No: jaws
Agnathan= “without jaw”
No internal ossification (AKA no internal bones)
No scales
No paired fins
No operculum but HAVE pore‐like gill openings
Gnathostomes
- Gnathostomes = “jaw mouth”
- Extant groups:
Chondrichthyans, ie sharks
Actinopterygians, ie ray finned fishes
Sarcopterygians, ie lobbed finned fishes

- Major Gnathostome Innovations

Jaws
Jaws evolved from gill arches of common ancestor, eventually becoming
articulating jaws
Important as it allows animals to feed on new food sources, not limited as
it can chew so hard/ active/ large can chew
Modified gill supports (gill arches) plus associated musculature (m: the
system or arrangement of muscles in a body, part of the body, or an organ)

Paired pectoral (m: chest) & pelvic (m: hips) appendages

Agnathans don’t have
Fins or limbs if tetrapod like humans are

Allows fish to swim better and more stability and control

Secondary loss in some species eg seahorses
Chondrichthyes = “cartilage fish ”

Sharks, skates and rays

Cartilaginous skeleton: no bone
No swim bladder
Males have claspers which are Intromittent organs (m:structures that enter the
female genital tract and deposit sperm)
Spiral valve in intestine

2 groups
Elasmobranchs ie Sharks, skates, rays
Holocephalans ie Chimaeras (aka ghost sharks/rat fish/rabbit fish)
1000 species
 True bone absent
Phosphatized mineral tissues in teeth, scales, and spines

Teeth not fused to jaws tf Sharks shed teeth and it grow outwards

Sharks
- Fusiform body
- Tough, leathery skin with placoid scales (m: kind of like teeth, they’re
mineralised scales which help them to reduce drag when swimming through
 water)

- Asymmetrical tail for thrust and lift which mean when moving through water
they don’t sink down the water column
- Whale shark second biggest vertebrates
- Vary in sizes
- Shark sensory system
Well‐developed sense organs
Olfaction detects prey > 1km away and once they get closer, they’ll use
lateral line senses low frequency vibrations produce by prey
Neuromast cells detect vibrations

Good vision
 Deploy Electroreceptors (^purple dots on shark head) can detect
electrical signals given off by preys

Rays
- Closely related to sharks bc also Cartilaginous fish
- Specialized for benthic life (m: ocean floor or river floor)
- Dorsoventrally flattened
- Enlarged pectoral fins fused to head helps them glide and swim
- Spiracles
Gills underside so as they sit on ocean floor it won’t get clogged up with
mud and draw clean water in spiracles across gills for gas exchange
- Electric rays use electricity to stun preys and discourage predators

Chondrichthyan physiology
- Spiral valve in intestine slows passage of food and increases surface area for
absorption of the nutrients in the food
- Specialised osmoregulation: rectal gland and urea in blood
Special Cartilaginous fish adaptation

Chondrichthyan reproduction
- Internal fertilization bc of claspers inseminating females
 - Claspers
Tf 55 % viviparous (life birth) , 45 % oviparous (egg laying) bc internal
fertilization evolved oviparity

Osteichthyes = “bone fish ”

- Bony fish talk about Osteichthyes except for tetrapods tf a Paraphyletic use of

them term
- Ray ‐finned fishes (Actinopterygii )
Goldish
 - Lobe ‐finned fishes (Sarcopterygii )
Coelacanths
Lungfish
Tetrapods (tf Coelacanths and Lungfish our closest living relatives)
- Synapomorphies:
Bony endoskeleton/ Ossified skeleton
Gas‐filled organ derived from esophagus:
Lung if used primarily for gas exchange e.g. lungfish, tetrapods OR
called Swim bladder if used primarily for buoyancy
Homologous structures tf our lungs are homologous to the swim
bladder for buoyancy in a goldfish
Swim bladder – specific bony fish innovation

Fishes are heavier than water

- Sharks: no swim bladder
continually move forward to stay upright and have tail fin “angled up”
stopping them from sinking down
liver has special buoyant lipid, squalene
- Bony fishes: swim bladder
Gas‐filled organ, the can be empties
Adjust volume of gas for depth control (m: sink or rise)
Some bony fish has no swim bladder eg tunas, most abyssal fishes (m:
anything live in deep sea) , bottom dwellers as it doesn’t need bouyancy
Actinopterygii = “having rays fins ”

- Ray ‐finned fishes

Paired fins with dermal rays
Swim bladder may be present
- Sturgeons, gars, and teleosts (modern bony fishes, most fish we can think of)

Teleosts
- Most diverse group of fishes
- Thin, flexible scales (or total loss of scales)
- Fin adaptations
Eg Dorsal fin where in Angler fish a modified dorsal fin with bioluminescence
to lure prey; stonefish has a modified dorsal fin to deliver venom; flying fish with
modified pectoral fins to glide through water and with enough speed go up on
surface to glide in the air to escape its predators
Sarcopterygii = “flesh fins ”
- Lobe ‐finned fishes plus tetrapods (us!)
Fleshy lobed fins, where tetrapods have eventually modified form into
limbs
Gas ‐filled organ is lung ‐like
- Few Sarcopterygii that aren’t tetrapods
Today only 6 lungfishes , 2 coelacanths , many tetrapods
- Reproductive diversity
Look at prac , but