SEAN KENT PHOTOGRAPHY
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Key Characteristics

Key Characteristics: 
  • Gill Breathing
    Most efficient respiratory organ in the animal kingdom
    Gills extract oxygen from a medium (water) that has 5% of the oxygen present in air
  • Ectothermic
  • Aquatic
  • Fins
  • Skin usually covered with scales
  • Excellent olfactory and visual systems
  • Many species have a sensory system called a lateral line
    Lateral line cells are extremely sensitive to water currents and vibrations

Major groups of fishes

  • Hagfish (Class Myxini) 
    • Distinct head
    • Tripartie brain
    • Specialized sense organs and one or more pairs semicircular canals
    • Lacks a well developed visceral skeleton
  • Lamprey (Class Cephalaspidomorphi)
    • Well-developed visceral skeleton
    • Two or more pairs of semicircular canals
  • Elasmobranchii (Sharks, Skates, and Rays) & Holocephali (Chimeras)
    • Jaws
    • Three pairs semicircular canals
    • Teeth with dentine
    • Supporting elements for jaw
    • Gills not covered by an operculum 
    • Cartilaginous skeleton
  • Actinopterygii (Bony Fish)
    • Bony skeleton
    • Gills covered by bony operculum
    • Lung or swim bladder
  • Sarcopterygii (Fleshy-finned fishes)
    • Supportive elements in the skeleton, pectoral or pelvic girdle, fins, and legs 

Resources

  • Check out this UC Berkley resource on the evidence showing how the Coelacanth is a likely common ancestor to tetrapods (land vertebrates)
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  • Home
  • Landscapes
  • Nature
    • Otters at Trowel Shop Pond
  • Around Town
  • About Me
    • Experience and Research >
      • Bee Research and Outreach >
        • Native Pollinator Research Program
        • Native Bee Links and Resources
      • Publications, Presentations, and Honors
      • Field Experiments >
        • Monarch Butterfly Research
        • Competition and Herbivory (White-tailed Deer)
        • Plant-pollinator interactions
  • Atop Darien Blog