Fish anatomy

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Fish anatomy is primarily governed by the physical characteristics of water, which is

much denser than air, holds a relatively small amount of dissolved oxygen, and
absorbs light more than air does.

Contents
[hide]
 1 Fins
o 1.1 Spines and rays
o 1.2 Types of fin
 2 Reproductive system
o 2.1 Internal fertilization
 3 Skin
 4 Vertebrae
 5 The jaw
 6 Internal organs
 7 See also

 8 References

[edit] Fins
The anatomy of Lampanyctodes hectoris
(1) - operculum (gill cover), (2) - lateral line, (3) - dorsal fin, (4) - fat fin, -- (5) - caudal peduncle, (6) -
caudal fin, (7) - anal fin, (8) - photophores, -- (9) - pelvic fins (paired), (10) - pectoral fins (paired)

The fins are the most distinctive features of a fish, composed of bony spines
protruding from the body with skin covering them and joining them together, either in
a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or more similar to a flipper, as seen in
sharks. These usually serve as a means for the fish to swim. Fins can also be used for
gliding or crawling, as seen in the flying fish and frogfish. Fins located in different
places on the fish serve different purposes, such as moving forward, turning, and
keeping an upright position.

[edit] Spines and rays

In bony fish, most fins may have spines or rays. A fin can contain only spiny rays,
only soft rays, or a combination of both. If both are present, the spiny rays are always
anterior. Spines are generally stiff and sharp. Rays are generally soft, flexible,
segmented, and may be branched. This segmentation of rays is the main difference
that separates them from spines; spines may be flexible in certain species, but they
will never be segmented.

Spines have a variety of uses. In catfish, they are used as a form of defense; many
catfish have the ability to lock their spines outwards. Triggerfish also use spines to
lock themselves in crevices to prevent them being pulled out.

[edit] Types of fin

 Dorsal fins are located on the back. A fish can have up to three of them. The
dorsal fins serve to protect the fish against rolling, and assists in sudden turns
and stops.
o In anglerfish, the anterior of the dorsal fin is modified into an illicium
and esca, a biological equivalent to a fishing pole and a lure.
o The bones that support the dorsal fin are called Pterygiophore. There
are two to three of them: "proximal", "middle", and "distal". In spinous
fins the distal is often fused to the middle, or not present at all.
 The caudal fin is the tail fin, located at the end of the caudal peduncle.
 types of caudal fin :
(A) - Heterocercal, (B) - Protocercal,
(C) - Homocercal, (D) - Diphycercal

o The tail can be heterocercal, which means that the vertebrae extend
into a larger lobe of the tail or that the tail is asymmetrical
 Epicercal means that the upper lobe is longer (as in sharks)
 Hypocercal means that the lower lobe is longer (as in flying
fish)
o Protocercal means that the caudal fin extends around the vertebral
column, present in embryonic fish and hagfish. This is not to be
confused with a caudal fin that has fused with the dorsal and anal fins
to form a contiguous fin.
o Diphycercal refers to the special, three-lobed caudal fin of the
coelacanth and lungfish where the vertebrae extend all the way to the
end of the tail.
o Most fish have a homocercal tail, where the vertebrae do not extend
into a lobe and the fin is more or less symmetrical. This can be
expressed in a variety of shapes.
 The tail fin may be rounded at the end.
 The tail fin may be truncated, or end in a more-or-less vertical
edge (such as in salmon).
 The fin may be forked, or end in two prongs.
 The tail fin may be emarginate, or with a slight inward curve.
 The tail fin may be lunate, or shaped like a crescent moon.
 The anal fin is located on the ventral surface behind the anus. This fin is used
to stabilize the fish while swimming.
 The paired pectoral fins are located on each side, usually just behind the
operculum, and are homologous to the forelimbs of tetrapods.
o A peculiar function of pectoral fins, highly developed in some fish, is
the creation of the dynamic lifting force that assists some fish, such as
sharks, in maintaining depth and also enables the "flight" for flying
fish.
 Bigeye tuna Thunnus obesus showing finlets and keels.
Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling

o In many fish, the pectoral fins aid in walking, especially in the lobe-
like fins of some anglerfish and in the mudskipper.
o Certain rays of the pectoral fins may be adapted into finger-like
projections, such as in sea robins and flying gurnards.
 The "horns" of manta rays and their relatives are called
cephalic fins; this is actually a modification of the anterior
portion of the pectoral fin.
 The paired pelvic or ventral fins are located ventrally below the pectoral fins.
They are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. The pelvic fin assists the
fish in going up or down through the water, turning sharply, and stopping
quickly.
o In gobies, the pelvic fins are often fused into a single sucker disk. This
can be used to attach to objects.
 The adipose fin is a soft, fleshy fin found on the back behind the dorsal fin
and just forward of the caudal fin. It is absent in many fish families, but is
found in Salmonidae, characins and catfishes.
 Some types of fast-swimming fish have a horizontal caudal keel just forward
of the tail fin. This is a lateral ridge on the caudal peduncle, usually composed
of scutes (see below), that provides stability and support to the caudal fin.
There may be a single paired keel, one on each side, or two pairs above and
below.
 Finlets are small fins, generally behind the dorsal and anal fins (in bichirs,
there are only finlets on the dorsal surface and no dorsal fin). In some fish
such as tuna or sauries, they are rayless, non-retractable, and found between
the last dorsal and/or anal fin and the caudal fin.

For every fin, there are a number of fish species in which this particular fin has been
lost during evolution.

[edit] Reproductive system

[edit] Internal fertilization

In many species of fish, fins have been modified to allow internal fertilization.

A gonopodium is an anal fin that is modified into an intromittent organ in males of

certain species of live-bearing fish in the families Anablepidae and Poeciliidae. It is
movable and used to impregnate females during mating. The male's anal fin’s 3rd, 4th
and 5th rays are formed into a tube like structure in which the sperm of the fish is
ejected. In some species, the gonopodium may be as much as 50% of the total body
length. Occasionally the fin is too long to be used, as in the "lyretail" breeds of
Xiphophorus helleri. Hormone treated females may develop gonopodia. These are
useless for breeding. One finds similar organs having the same characteristics in other
types of fish, for example the andropodium in the Hemirhamphodon or in the
Goodeidae.

When ready for mating, the gonopodium becomes “erect” and points forward,
towards the female. The male shortly inserts the organ into the sex opening of the
female, with hook-like adaptations that allow the fish to grip onto the female to insure
impregnation. If a female remains stationary and her partner contacts her vent with his
gonopodium, she is fertilized. The sperm is preserved in the female's oviduct. This
allows females to, at any time, fertilize themselves without further assistance of
males.

Male cartilaginous fish have claspers modified from pelvic fins. These are
intromittent organs, used to channel semen into the female's cloaca during copulation.

[edit] Skin
See also: Scale (zoology)

The outer body of many fish is covered with scales. Some species are covered instead
by scutes. Others have no outer covering on the skin; these are called naked fish.
Most fish are covered in a protective layer of slime (mucus).

There are four types of fish scales.

1. Placoid scales, also called dermal denticles, are similar to teeth in that they
are made of dentin covered by enamel. They are typical of sharks and rays.
2. Ganoid scales are flat, basal-looking scales that cover a fish body with little
overlapping. They are typical of gar and bichirs.
3. Cycloid scales are small oval-shaped scales with growth rings. Bowfin and
remora have cycloid scales.
4. Ctenoid scales are similar to the cycloid scales, with growth rings. They are
distinguished by spines that cover one edge. Halibut have this type of scale.

Another, less common, type of scale is the scute, which is:

 an external shield-like bony plate, or

 a modified, thickened scale that often is keeled or spiny, or
 a projecting, modified (rough and strongly ridged) scale, usually associated
with the lateral line, or on the caudal peduncle forming caudal keels, or along
the ventral profile. Some fish, such as pineconefish, are completely or partially
covered in scutes.

[edit] Vertebrae
The vertebrae of lobe-finned fishes consist of three discrete bony elements. The
vertebral arch surrounds the spinal cord, and is of broadly similar form to that found
in most other vertebrates. Just beneath the arch lies a small plate-like pleurocentrum,
which protects the upper surface of the notochord, and below that, a larger arch-
shaped intercentrum to protect the lower border. Both of these structures are
embedded within a single cylindrical mass of cartilage. A similar arrangement was
found in primitive tetrapods, but, in the evolutionary line that led to reptiles (and
hence, also to mammals and birds), the intercentrum became partially or wholly
replaced by an enlarged pleurocentrum, which in turn became the bony vertebral
body.[1]

In most ray-finned fishes, including all teleosts, these two structures are fused with,
and embedded within, a solid piece of bone superficially resembling the vertebral
body of mammals. In living amphibians, there is simply a cylindrical piece of bone
below the vertebral arch, with no trace of the separate elements present in the early
tetrapods.[1]

In cartilagenous fish, such as sharks, the vertebrae consist of two cartilagenous tubes.
The upper tube is formed from the vertebral arches, but also includes additional
cartilagenous structures filling in the gaps between the vertebrae, and so enclosing the
spinal cord in an essentially continuous sheath. The lower tube surrounds the
notochord, and has a complex structure, often including multiple layers of
calcification.[1]

Lampreys have vertebral arches, but nothing resembling the vertebral bodies found in
all higher vertebrates. Even the arches are discontinuous, consisting of separate pieces
of arch-shaped cartilage around the spinal cord in most parts of the body, changing to
long strips of cartilage above and below in the tail region. Hagfishes lack a true
vertebral column, and are therefore not properly considered vertebrates, but a few tiny
neural arches are present in the tail.[1]

[edit] The jaw

See also: Wrasse#Anatomy

Jaws of great white shark

Moray eels have two sets of jaws: the oral jaws that capture prey and the pharyngeal
jaws that advances into the mouth and moves prey from the oral jaws to the
esophagus for swallowing

The vertebrate jaw probably originally evolved in the Silurian period and appeared in
the Placoderm fish which further diversified in the Devonian. Jaws are thought to
derive from the pharyngeal arches that support the gills in fish. The two most anterior
of these arches are thought to have become the jaw itself (see hyomandibula) and the
hyoid arch, which braces the jaw against the braincase and increases mechanical
efficiency. While there is no fossil evidence directly to support this theory, it makes
sense in light of the numbers of pharyngeal arches that are visible in extant jawed (the
Gnathostomes), which have seven arches, and primitive jawless vertebrates (the
Agnatha), which have nine.

It is thought that the original selective advantage garnered by the jaw was not related
to feeding, but to increased respiration efficiency. The jaws were used in the buccal
pump (observable in modern fish and amphibians) that pumps water across the gills of
fish or air into the lungs in the case of amphibians. Over evolutionary time the more
familiar use of jaws (to humans), in feeding, was selected for and became a very
important function in vertebrates.

[edit] Internal organs

 The gas bladder, or swim bladder, is an internal organ that contributes to the
ability of a fish to control its buoyancy, and thus to stay at the current water
depth, ascend, or descend without having to waste energy in swimming. It is
often absent in fast swimming fishes such as the tuna and mackerel families.
 Certain groups of fish have modifications to allow them to hear, such as the
Weberian apparatus of Ostariophysians.
 The gills, located under the operculum, are a respiratory organ for the
extraction of oxygen from water and for the excretion of carbon dioxide. They
are not usually visible, but can be seen in some species, such as the frilled
shark.
 The labyrinth organ of Anabantoidei and Clariidae is used to allow the fish
to extract oxygen from the air.
 Gill rakers are bony, finger-like projections of the gill arch filaments which
function in filter-feeders in retaining food organisms.
 Electric fish are able to produce electric fields by modified muscles in their
body.
 Many fish species are hermaphrodites. Synchronous hermaphrodites possess
both ovaries and testes at the same time. Sequential hermaphrodites have both
types of tissue in their gonads, with one type being predominant while the fish
belongs to the corresponding gender.
 The blood circulation of fishes is called "single circuit circulatory system".[2]

[edit] See also

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Fish scales

Scales of Common Roach (Rutilus rutilus).

Fish scales are dermally derived, specifically in the mesoderm. This fact distinguishes
them from reptile scales paleontologically. Genetically, the same genes involved in
tooth and hair development in mammals are also involved in scale development.[1]

[edit] Cosmoid scales

True cosmoid scales can only be found on the extinct Crossopterygians. The inner
layer of the scale is made of lamellar bone. On top of this lies a layer of spongy or
vascular bone and then a layer of dentine-like material called cosmine. The upper
surface is keratin. The coelacanth has modified cosmoid scales that lack cosmine and
are thinner than true cosmoid scales.

[edit] Ganoid scales

Ganoid scales can be found on gars (family Lepisosteidae) and bichirs and reedfishes
(family Polypteridae). Ganoid scales are similar to cosmoid scales, but a layer of
ganoin lies over the cosmine layer and under the enamel [clarification needed]. They are
diamond-shaped, shiny, and hard.

[edit] Placoid scales

Placoid scales are found on cartilaginous fish including sharks. These scales, also
called denticles, are similar in structure to teeth.
[edit] Leptoid scales

Leptoid scales are found on higher-order bony fish. As they grow they add concentric
layers. They are arranged so as to overlap in a head-to-tail direction, like roof tiles,
allowing a smoother flow of water over the body and therefore reducing drag.[citation
needed]
They come in two forms:

 Cycloid scales have a smooth outer edge, and are most common on fish with
soft fin rays, such as salmon and carp.

 Ctenoid scales have a toothed outer edge, and are usually found on fish with
spiny fin rays, such as bass and crappie.