Ch.

30 Notes: Chordates & Fish

Go Fish!

 A chordate is an animal that in some stage of

development has:
1. Notochord- dorsal rod of specialized nerves 2. A dorsal nerve chord- hollow tube just above the notochord

1. Pharyngeal pouches- small out pockets of the anterior gut

Muscle segments Notochord Hollow nerve cord

Tail

Anus Pharyngeal pouches

Mouth

Chordate Cladogram
Mammals Birds Amphibians Fishes Nonvertebrate chordates Reptiles

Invertebrate ancestor

Notochord exists only in the embryo and is replaced by an endoskeleton which grows as the animal grows Brain connected to a network of complex sensory organs In lower chordates (fishes & amphibians) pharyngeal pouches evolved into gill slits In terrestrial vertebrates, pharyngeal pouches evolved into structures in throat and ear

Mouse embryo

Classification
Phylum Chordata has 3 subphyla
1. 2. 3. Urochordata Cephalochordata Vertebrata

Subphylum Urochordata

Hollow barrel shaped urochordates are commonly called tunicates Tunicates (also know as sea squirts) are marine filter feeders.

Subphylum Cephalochordata

Marine organism (usually shallow water) Best represented by a blade-shaped translucent animal called amphioxus This class includes the several species of lancelets which are small, fishlike, filter-feeding animals. A lancelet has a long body, pointed at both ends, with a large notochord that extends almost from tip to tip and is remains there all through its life.

Subphylum Vertebrata

Vertebrata named for vertebrates Brain protected by an outer skull Backbone and skull make up the axial skeleton

Vertebrate Body Systems

Organs of vertebrates are organized into 10 systems: Skeletal, muscular, integumentary, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, excretory, immune, nervous, and reproductive.

Vertebrate Classes include the three classes of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Evolution and Classification of Fishes

Three classes of fishes: Agnatha; Chondrichthyes; and Osteichthyes Fishes are the most numerous of all vertebrates and most widespread in their distribution Fossil record shows jawless fish without paired fins appeared first about 550 million years ago Ostracoderm was a jawless, bottom-feeding ancestor to the agnathans (modern jawless fish)

Extinct acanthodians or spiny fish were first jawed fish with paired fins

Xiphactinus audax, a ray-finned fish, the largest bony fish of the Cretaceous. Typically 18-20 feet.

Adaptations

Because water is 800 times the density of

air, it affects both the body and mobility of fishes: adaptation for buoyancy (trapping of gas inside their body: gas bladder in order to regulate their vertical position)

 Ability to swim: a streamlined shape and

muscular tail enables them to move rapidly through the water; paired fins allow them to maneuver easily left or right, up or down, and backward and forward; the mucus reduces friction

 Scales limit chemical exchanges through

the skin; exchanges occur through the membranes of the gills: the external respiratory organs

Lateral Line System

Lateral line system:
consists of a row of sensory structures that run the length of the body and connected by nerves to the brain; detects vibrations

Agnatha jawless
Do not have a lateral line system 45 species of lampreys (fresh water) and hagfish (oceans) Cyclostomes round mouths ; have neither plates nor scales Notochord, eel-like shape, a cartilaginous skeleton, and unpaired fins - free living or parasitic; adapted for sucking blood and body fluids of other fish - highly developed sense of smell: nasal pore leads to olfactory sacs that connect with olfactory lobes - Feeding: attach by suction, tear a hole with toothy tongue, secrete chemical to prevent clotting - do not have a stomach: mouth, esophagus, a straight intestine, and associated glands

Lampreys:

Hagfish

Bottom dwellers in cold marine waters Scavengers of dead and dying fish on ocean bottom Feed by sawing the fish with its toothed tongue from the inside out Extremely flexible to avoid capture or to clean the slime off after self-defense secretions When not feeding they remain hidden in burrows on the ocean floor

Chondrichthyes
(also known as Elasmobranchia)

Sharks, skates, and rays They have skeletons of cartilage, not bone Also have movable jaws and skeletons with paired fins

Sharks
Sharks are predators and scavengers that eat injured fish, carrion, garbage and other waste from ships as well as animals such as seals, turtles, birds, whales, crabs, and a wide range of fishes. The sharks mouth has 6 to 20 rows of backward-pointing teeth. They can detect blood from an injured animal as far as 500 miles away. They swim with a side-to-side motion of their asymmetric tail fins. Behind their heads are pectoral fins that jut out of their bodies like the wings of a plane. Gas exchange requires a continuous passage of water over a sharks gills. http://www.elasmodiver.com/

Sharks don't have to swim constantly , not to live anyway. Many sharks spend their life pretty stationary e.g. Whitetip reef sharks and nurse sharks sleep during the day on the bottom and can suck water over their gills without moving forward. Some sharks cannot breathe unless they are moving, these are called Ram ventilators e.g. Great white, Mako, Oceanic white tip, blue shark--Mostly open ocean sharks. All sharks however will sink if they are not moving forward, this is not fatal in the case of sharks that live on the bottom and aren't ram ventilators such as the nurse shark.

Now sharks don't have a swim bladder. their skeletons are made from cartilage rather than bone , so they're more flexible, they also have a HUGE liver full of oil. This means that the oil provides a lot of the shark's bouyancy (oil floats on water remember) about 70% of the sharks bouyancy comes from this. However, this is not all of the bouyancy needed to keep the shark floating. The shark's fins provide the rest of the bouyancy just like an airplane's wings, the water flowing over them create lift due to the shape of the fins in cross section (they are an aerofoil - as water flows over the top curve of the fin/wing it accelerates to arrive at the same time as the water flowing the shorter route, as a fluid accellerates it's pressure drops so the wing is "sucked" up by low pressure above it and higher pressure below) - This is called the "Bernouilli" effect after the Italian scientist who discovered it - its the reason airplanes fly!

Rays and Skates

Skates are a family of flat-bodied rays found in warm and temperate seas. They have eyes located on the upper surface of the body while the mouth and gills are located on the lower surface. Their color makes them almost invisible because when another animal looks down on them, they are camouflaged with the darkness of the sea bottom. When looked up from underneath, the animal is camouflaged with the light from the sun. Water enters their gills through two openings called spiracles atop their heads. Most feed on mollusks and crustaceans.

Osteichthyes
Osteichthyes make up most of the vertebrate population in fresh water and in salt water. Lobe-finned fishes, or coelacanths, have paddle like fins with fleshy bases. Lungfishes have gills where gas exchange takes place between water and the blood. They burrow unto the mud and cover themselves in mucus to stay moist until the pond refills. Ray-finned fishes have fins that are supported by the long bones called rays. They are the most familiar fishes and include snakelike eels, yellow perch, cave fish, herring, and lantern fish.

Morphology of a Bony Fish

External Anatomy
Body Structure
Distinct head, trunk, and tail regions Each side of head is operculum -Hard plate that opens at rear and covers and protects gills Strong muscles along dorsal backbone thrust tail from side to side

The Anatomy of a Fish

Kidney Muscle Pyloric cecum Stomach Vertebra Esophagus Brain Spinal Gills cord Swim bladder

Mouth Operculum Urinary bladder Anus Reproductive organ Intestine Pancreas Liver Heart Gallbladder

Fins

Thin fan-shaped membranes Richly supplied with blood By raising and lowering fins, regulate body temperature Supported by rays or spines -Rays- bony yet flexible -Spines- bony and rigid Adapted for swimming and guiding fish through water Caudal fin extends from tail -Moves from side to side and amplifies swimming motions 2 dorsal fins, one anterior and one posterior, and ventral anal fin -Help keep fish upright and moving in straight line Paired pelvic fins and pectoral fins -Used to steer, brake, move up and down, and even back up -Orient body when at rest

Integuments

Skin covered with scales -Thin, round disks of highly modified bone that grow from pockets of skin -Overlap like roof shingles, all pointing toward tail to minimize friction -Grow during entire life of fish -Adjusting growth pattern to food supply
Scales grow quickly when food is abundant and slowly when scarce

Skin contains pigmented chromatophores -Create various color patterns

Internal Anatomy

Bone is living tissue in which cells deposit minerals, primarily calcium Bone can:
1. 2. 3. 4. Grow Support many times its own weight Heal if broken Resists bending or breaking when stressed by muscle or blows Skull Spine- made up of many cones, vertebrae with cartilage pads in between Ribs

Major parts of fish skeleton

1. 2. 3.

Digestive System

Carnivores Jaws armed with many sharp teeth that point inward to keep smaller fish and other prey from escaping Tongue anchored and immobile Lined with nerve cells, helps detect chemicals in environment Food passes from mouth pharynx esophagus stomach Digestion takes place in out pockets of stomach called pyloric ceca Liver and pancreas secrete digestive enzymes (bile and insulin) that help break down food Undigested material leaves through ventral anus

Circulatory System

Adapted for rapid swimming and other high-performance activities Consists of: -Two-chambered heart
1. 2. Atrium- collecting chambers Ventricle- pumping chambers

-Blood vessels -Blood containing red and white blood cells Heart pumps blood through arteries to small, thin-walled vessels called capillaries in gills blood picks up oxygen gas from releases carbon dioxide into water blood moves to body tissues, where nutrients and wastes are exchanged blood returns to heart through veins

Circulation in a Fish
Section 30-2
Gills Brain and head circulation Sinus Venosus Oxygen-poor blood from the veins collects in the sinus venosus. Atrium Blood enters the atrium and flows to the ventricle. Body muscle circulation

Digestive system circulation

Ventricle Heart The ventricle pumps blood into the bulbus arteriosus. Oxygen-rich blood Oxygen-poor blood

Bulbus Arteriosus The bulbus arteriosus moves blood into the ventral aorta and toward the gills.

Respiratory and Excretory Systems

Gills adapted for gas exchange Consists of four sets of curved pieces of bone on each side of head Each has double row of thin projections called gill filaments richly supplied with capillaries Large surface area allows rapid gas exchange Excrete nitrogenous wastes from body, but task carried out primarily by kidneys Kidneys filter out dissolved chemical wastes from blood

Gas bladder or swim bladder -Thin-walled sac in abdominal cavity -Contains mixture of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen obtained from bloodstream -By regulating amount of gas in sac, fish adjust overall density and thus move up or down in water or hover at given depth

There are two types of swim bladder in bony fish, some are joined to the stomach so excess gas can vent off and they can take air from the surface, this is good since they can change depth quickly, the other type has a swim bladder with that is totally closed, it fills the swim bladder with gas that diffuses out of the blood, so if it goes too far up too quick it cannot reabsorb the gas again in time and it gets decompression illness (like a diver) e.g. Snappers, if they're dragged up from depth too quickly they can be injured, so for catch and release some fishermen insert a hollow needle carefully to bleed off the gas and release the fish - a high % survive to be caught again.

Nervous and Sensory System

Nervous system consists of: -Brain- consisting of five paired lobes

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Optic lobes- largest, at center; receive impulses from eyes and other sense organs; signal muscles to move Olfactory lobes- anterior lobes; respond mainly to smells Cerebrum- anterior lobes; respond mainly to smells Cerebellum- posterior of brain; coordinates muscles Medulla oblongata- regulates internal organs

-Spinal cord -Nerves that lead to and from all parts of body Major sense organs connected directly with brain via cranial nerves Spinal nerves connect spinal cord with internal organs, muscles, and sense organs Also carry impulses to brain from lateral line system

Reproduction

Sexes are separate Eggs produced by ovaries in female; sperm produced by testes in male; both released through opening just rear of anus Fertilization of eggs takes place externally Young fish hatch within hours of warm water or after many weeks in cold water Number of eggs bony fish may lay varies considerably Some bear live young Female receives sperm during mating, and fertilization is internal Carries eggs in body until young are born Spawn- reproduce

When Dad gets pregnant

In sea horses, the males become pregnant. Their mating involves the female inserting her oviduct into the male's brooding pouch. She does this several times for short intervals to avoid exhaustion. In between the female rests while the male contorts himself to try to get the eggs in place in his brood pouch. After completion the male moves away and attaches himself by his tail to a nearby plant. The female moves away and waits for her oviduct to recede. The oviduct usually recedes within a few hours. The eggs are fertilized and hatch in the male's pouch The size of the sea horse brood varies within sea horse species. Some species' broods are as large as 200 while others are as small as 8.

Mandarin Fish
A pair of mandarinfish swim close together prior to spawning. Mandarinfish are reefdwellers native to the Pacific Ocean. Fish can be masters of animal camouflage. See an example of this next.

 This harlequin ghost pipefish has evolved to look like the coral that it lives around. Check out two eerie snake-like fish in the next picture.

 These white-eyed moray eels can grow to 4 or 5 feet long. These eels have sharp teeth in their powerful jaws. There are about 700 kinds of eels. You wouldn't want to be in class with this next fearsome fish.

 A barracuda is scary because it has large jaws and very sharp teeth. It eats lots of other fish in the sea. If a barracuda feels threatened, it will even attack a person. See a particularly unusual fish next.

 Batfish use their strong pectoral fins, shaped like the hind legs of a frog, to "walk" across the sea floor in search of prey. Discover a small saltwater fish that resides near the Banggai Islands of Indonesia next.

http://animals.howstuffworks.co m/fish/saltwater-fishpictures3.htm

Blogfish

Dumbo octopus, Yeti crab, Baby pygmy marmoset platypus

Angora rabbit, emperor tapir, armadillo, pink fairy armadillo

This is an X-ray of the two headed snake. You will notice the skulls have a dragon-like look. Our snake was only 56 cm or 22 inches long, but prehistoric snakes could have been much bigger allowing people to imagine large demons. Feeding time required some clever thinking by our animal caretaker since the two heads merge at the neck. To keep the snake from choking one head would be given a mouse head-first while the other would be fed the mouse sideways. This prevented the mice from reaching the part where the heads join the body at the same time. It also kept both heads busy so neither one would be tempted to eat the other.

Our two headed kingsnake was first discovered as a baby under a toilet seat in the foothills of South Mountain. Not a very good beginning for our serpent. After several years it was loaned to the ASU reptile collection where it was cared for by Larry Nienaber. Larry is our long time animal care expert. With the special attention given our two headed friend, it lived a total of 17 years. If you are wondering, 17 years is a long time for a kingsnake and for our two headed anomaly an especially long life. Typically king snakes live between 8 and 23 years in captivity. In the wild it would not have survived. Each head moved and thought independently, which lead to some problems. For one, it had trouble deciding which way to go. Much like two brothers might want to do different things only these brothers were attached. If you have brothers or sisters, you can imagine the struggles. Another problem is king snakes eat lizards in the wild. If both heads caught a lizard, the process could last all day and might result in one head swallowing the other... ugh. How did our kingsnake end up with two heads? It would work in the same way identical twins develop. The snake was most likely a result of a single egg that did not fully split into two embryos before they hatched.