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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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3K 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.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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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