FAQ 1113

Evolution and Biology of Finfish

Ms. Yogya Bandara

Dept. of Fisheries & Aquaculture

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 1

 Order
Subclass Cladistia Polypteriformes
(bichirs)

Order
Acipenseriformes
Subclass Chondrostei
(sturgeons,
paddlefishes)

Class Actinopterygii
Amiiformes (Bowfin)

Subclass Neopterygii
Order
Lepisosteiformes
(gars)
Division Teleostei

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Subclass Cladistia: bichirs and Reedfish

• Modern cladistians are represented by two genera confined to west

and central tropical Africa:
1. bichirs (genus Polypterus)
2. Reedfish or Ropefish (Erpetoichthyes calabaricus)

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Characters:
• Bichirs and reedfish grow to 90 cm, although most bichir species are
shorter.
• All are predatory and inhabit shallow, vegetated, and swampy
portions of lakes and rivers.
• In poorly oxygenated water, bichirs are obligate air breathers

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• Bichirs are unique in that:
• they use their dorsally placed spiracles to exhale spent air from the lungs; the
spiracles serve no apparent aquatic respiratory function
• they inhale through their mouths

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• The bichirs have a number of unique traits:
• 5–18 dorsal finlets each consist of a vertical spine to which are attached
horizontal rays, giving them a “flag and pole” appearance (also referred to as
“flagfins”)
• The pectoral fin is lobe-shaped but constructed differently from the lobe fins
of lungfishes
• include relatively few and small chromosomes
• possession of only four rather than five gill arches

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 Order
Subclass Cladistia Polypteriformes
(bichirs)

Order
Acipenseriformes
Subclass Chondrostei
(sturgeons,
paddlefishes)

Class Actinopterygii
Amiiformes (Bowfin)

Subclass Neopterygii
Order
Lepisosteiformes
(gars)
Division Teleostei

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 7

Subclass Chondrostei, Order Acipenseriformes:
sturgeons and paddlefishes
• 2 families: Acipenseridae & Polyodontidae
• The two families probably diverged from
each other during the Jurassic, but they still
share a number of characteristics such as:
- a cartilaginous skeleton

- heterocercal tail

- reduced scales (squamation)

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Family: Acipenseridae (Sturgeons)

• Includes 25 species of that are restricted to the northern hemisphere

• Four genera are recognized, Acipenser, Huso, Scaphirhynchus, and
Pseudoscaphirhynchus
• All species spawn in fresh water, although some species move
seasonally between marine and fresh water (anadromous)

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General characters
• Four barbels in front of the ventrally
located mouth
• Five rows of bony scutes (large bony
shields) on a body otherwise covered
with minute ossifications
• A heterocercal tail
• Elongate snout
• A single dorsal fin situated near the
tail
• No branchiostegal rays
• Largely cartilaginous endoskeleton
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• Generally slow-swimming feeders on benthic invertebrates
• Sometimes piscivorous: protrusible mouth can be extended very
rapidly, allowing to feed on fishes
• Vision plays at best a minimal role in prey detection
• More important: touch, chemoreception, and electrolocation via
rostral ampullary organs

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• The life history traits of sturgeon make them unique and susceptible
to overexploitation by humans.
- sexual maturity is attained slowly (e.g. In the Atlantic Sturgeon,
both sexes mature after 5–30 years)
- females may only spawn every 3–5 years

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• Fecundity is relatively high: ovaries may account for 25% of the body
mass of a female, making a large female exceedingly valuable.

• sturgeons worldwide have declined due to overexploitation, dam

building, habitat destruction, and pollution.

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 13

Family: Polyodontidae
• Only two species remain, the Paddlefish of North America (Polyodon
spathula) and the Chinese Paddlefish (Psephurus gladius)

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 14

General characters:
• They differ from the acipenserids;
• The bony scutes are missing and the body is essentially naked except for
patches of minute scales.
• Paddlefishes are not benthic swimmers but instead move through the open
waters of large, free-flowing rivers, feeding on zooplankton or fishes.

• rostral paddle:
• accounts for one-third of the body length in adults
• abundant ampullary receptors on the surface of the paddle and operculum
serve to detect biologically generated electricity

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• rostral paddle:
- accounts for one-third of the body length in adults
- abundant ampullary receptors on the surface of the paddle and
operculum serve to detect biologically generated electricity

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• Causes of population decline are similar to those affecting sturgeon:
- long-lived but do not mature until they are 7–9 (males) or 10–12
(females) years old
- spawn only at 2–5- year intervals
- loss of spawning habitat
- commercial and recreational overfishing for their flesh and eggs

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• Chinese Paddlefish, is the more primitive of the two species and
differs primarily in head and jaw morphology and body size.
- The paddle is narrow and more pointed, not broad and rounded.
- has fewer but thicker gill rakers that resemble those of sturgeons,
a protrusible mouth
- grows larger

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 Order
Subclass Cladistia Polypteriformes
(bichirs)

Order
Acipenseriformes
Subclass Chondrostei
(sturgeons,
paddlefishes)

Class Actinopterygii Order

Amiiformes (Bowfin)

Subclass Neopterygii
Order
Lepisosteiformes
(gars)
Division Teleostei

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 Order Amiiformes: the Bowfin
Characters
• The Bowfin (Amia calva), is generally considered more derived than
the gars
• Amia retains some primitive characters:
- heterocercal tail
- Exceptionally boney head
• Similarity to teleosts
- cycloid scales, but not homologous with teleostean cycloid scales
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• The Bowfin is distinct among all living fishes in:
- Possessing a single, median gular plate on the underside of the head
- Being the only non-teleostean fish to swim via undulations of its long
dorsal fin, which allows it to move slowly both forward and backward

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• Common in vegetated lakes and backwater areas of large rivers, occupying
deeper waters by day and moving into shallows at night to feed.
• Opportunistic predators and engulf their prays via suction
• Males:
• build nests in shallow water by clearing a circular depression on the
bottom about 0.5 m across
• also engage in parental care, guarding the young vigorously until they
are relatively large (10 cm)
• has a distinct black spot at the base of its caudal fin (such non-seasonal
sexual dimorphism does not occur in other living primitive bony fishes)
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Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 23
• incapable of surviving in warm, deoxygenated water without access
to atmospheric oxygen

• Bowfin gulp air and pass it to a highly vascularized gas bladder (=

Gars)

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 24

 Order
Subclass Cladistia Polypteriformes
(bichirs)

Order
Acipenseriformes
Subclass Chondrostei
(sturgeons,
paddlefishes)

Class Actinopterygii
Amiiformes (Bowfin)

Subclass Neopterygii
Order
Lepisosteiformes
(gars)
Division Teleostei

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 25

Subclass Neopterygii, Order Lepisosteiformes (or
Semionotiformes): the gars
• All seven species of living gars are in the family Lepisosteidae, four in
Lepisosteus and three in Atractosteus
• These elongate, predatory fishes are restricted to North and Central
America and Cuba
• typically inhabit backwater areas of lakes and rivers

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 26

Characters
• entirely ossified skeletons
• Primitiveness is evident in their:
• hinged, diamond-shaped, interlocking ganoidlike scales
• heterocercal caudal fin

• derived innovation: opisthocoelous vertebral centra

• being concave on their posterior surface and convex on the anterior surface,
allowing for a “ball and- socket” articulation
• essentially unique among living fishes

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 27

• Most are considered water column predators on other fishes
• Often hover just below the surface, feeding on bottom-dwelling fishes
and invertebrates, and scavenging on benthic food
• Frequently enter estuarine regions
• Little is known about the life history and general biology of gars
• The only freshwater fishes in North America with toxic eggs.
• The eggs are distinctly green in color
• cause sickness and even death when eaten by chickens and mice

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 28

 Order
Subclass Cladistia Polypteriformes
(bichirs)

Order
Acipenseriformes
Subclass Chondrostei
(sturgeons,
paddlefishes)

Class Actinopterygii
Amiiformes (Bowfin)

Subclass Neopterygii
Order
Lepisosteiformes
(gars)
Division Teleostei

Dept. of Fisheries and Aquaculture 29