The Remarkable Diversity of Fish

Adaptations, Habitats, and Evolutionary History

Introduction

Fish are the most numerous and diverse group of major vertebrates.

They dominate the world's waters with a variety of adaptations.

Diversity of Fish Species

Over 25,000 fish species with valid descriptions.

Estimated to reach 30,000 species or more due to ongoing discoveries.

Fish species are continually evolving and diversifying.

Wide Range of Habitats

Fish occupy diverse aquatic environments, from seasonal ponds to deep oceanic
trenches.

They thrive in environments with varying temperatures, pH values, salinities, and

oxygen levels.

Adapted to live in habitats ranging from -1.8°C to nearly 40°C.

Evolutionary History

Fishes have a long evolutionary history, dating back at least 500 million years.

Ichthyologists consider hagfishes and lampreys as jawless fishes, contributing to

fish diversity.

Jawed fishes (Gnathostomata) emerged, including placoderms, cartilaginous

fishes, and bony fishes.
Cartilaginous Fishes

Sharks and rays (Elasmobranchi) and ratfishes and chimaeras (Holocephali).

Over 800 species of sharks and rays, approximately 30 species of ratfishes and
chimaeras.
Bony Fishes

Split into lungfishes, coelacanths, and ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii).

Ray-finned fishes further divided into Chondrostei and Neopterygii.

Neopterygii encompasses the majority of modern bony fish species.

Fish Distribution

Surprisingly, only 58% of fish species are marine, while 41% inhabit freshwater.

Freshwater environments offer numerous "islands" that promote speciation.

Majority of marine fish species live in the narrow band of water along land
masses.
Influence of Temperature

Most fish species found in warmer environments with stable temperature

fluctuations.
Adaptations to the Aquatic Medium

Fish exhibit recognizable characteristics due to water's physical and chemical

properties.
Water's density allows fish to remain suspended and neutrally buoyant.
Fish are streamlined to reduce water resistance and propel themselves efficiently.
Fish possess a sensitive lateral line system to detect turbulence and water
displacement.
Sound travels faster and farther in water, enabling fish to have excellent hearing.
Water as a Solvent

Water acts as a universal solvent, carrying dissolved gases, salts, and organic
compounds.

Oxygen is crucial for fish survival, and gills maximize oxygen extraction.

Fish are sensitive to changes in salt concentration, affecting their ability to move
between fresh and saltwater.
Light Penetration in Water

Water has low penetrability to light, limiting its depth of penetration.

Most fish species are found in the lighted (photic) zone where algae and plants
grow.

Sight is important for prey capture, but fish have adaptations for low-light
situations.
Conclusion

Fish possess a rich combination of adaptive traits shaped by their evolutionary

history.

The field of ichthyology explores the complex symphony of fish systematics,

physiology, ecology, and behavior.
Form and Movement
The ecologicál diversity of fishes is reflected in their body shapes and means of
locomotion.

Understanding the anatomical features and movement of fish is crucial for their
classification, identification, and ecological studies.
External Anatomy

Fishes exhibit a wide range of external anatomical features due to their adaptation
to different habitats.

Peculiar forms, such as seahorses and lumpfishes, require individual study, while
others can be categorized based on body shape, scales, fins, mouth, gill openings,
and sense organs.
Body Shape

Rover-Predator: Streamlined body with a pointed head, terminal mouth, and forked
tail. Examples: Minnows, bass, tuna, swordfish.
Lie-in-Wait Predator: Fusiform body, elongated and torpedo-like, flattened head
with a large mouth and pointed teeth. Examples: Pikes, barracuda, gars,
needlefish, snook.
Surface-Oriented Fish: Small size, upward-pointing mouth, dorsoventrally flattened
head, and dorsal fin placed toward the rear. Adapted for capturing plankton and
insects near the water's surface. Examples: Mosquitofish, killifish, four-eyed fish,
halfbeaks, flying fishes.
Bottom Fish: Various body shapes adapted for life in continuous contact with the
bottom. Examples: Bottom rovers (catfishes, armored catfishes, sturgeons),
bottom clingers (sculpins, gobies, clingfishes), bottom hiders (darters, blennies),
flatfish (flounders), rattails (grenadiers, brotulas, chimaeras).
Deep-Bodied Fish: Laterally flattened body, high dorsal and anal fins, adapted for
maneuvering in tight spaces and picking small invertebrates. Examples: Coral reef
dwellers, aquatic plant inhabitants, planktivores.
Eel-Like Fish: Elongate bodies, blunt or wedge-shaped heads, small paired fins,
long dorsal and anal fins. Adapted for entering crevices, burrowing, and swimming
in open water. Examples: Eels, loaches, gunnels.
STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL
ADAPTATIONS OF FISHES
Locomotion in Water

● Most fish can swim at speeds of up to 10 body lengths per second, with larger fish generally swimming
faster.
● The axial, locomotory musculature of fish is composed of zigzag bands called myomeres, which are
complexly folded and nested to produce more power and finer control of movement.
● The movement of an eel is serpentine, with waves of contraction moving backward along its body,
producing thrust and lateral force.
● Fishes that swim rapidly, such as trout, limit body undulations mostly to the caudal region, with thrust
generated in the relatively nonmuscular caudal peduncle and caudal fin.
● Tuna barely flex their bodies and derive virtually all thrust from powerful sweeps of the caudal fin.
● Swimming is found to be the most efficient form of locomotion, with salmon requiring only 0.39 kcal to travel
1 km.
Neutral Buoyancy and the Swim Bladder
● Fish are slightly heavier than water due to heavy elements in their tissues.
● Sharks lack a swim bladder and must keep moving to avoid sinking.
● Sharks have large livers containing squalene to aid in buoyancy.
● Bony fish use swim bladders to achieve neutral buoyancy and remain suspended indefinitely.
● Gas in the swim bladder can be compressed or expanded to adjust buoyancy.
● Gas can be removed through a pneumatic duct or diffusion from the blood.
● The gas gland secretes lactic acid to force hemoglobin to release oxygen, allowing gas to
diffuse into the swim bladder.
● The length of the rete capillaries determines the final gas pressure in the swim bladder.
Hearing and Weberian Ossicles
● Fish detect sounds as vibrations in the inner ear.
● Aquatic vertebrates have difficulty detecting vibrations due to their bodies being the same
density as water.
● Ostariophysans have Weberian ossicles, which allow them to hear faint sounds over a
broader range of frequency than other teleosts.
● Sound reception begins at the air-filled swim bladder and is transmitted to the inner ear by the
Weberian ossicles.
● Other fish, such as herrings and anchovies, have adaptations to improve hearing, such as
anterior expansions of the swim bladder that directly contact the skull.
Respiration

● Fish gills are made of thin filaments covered with a membrane and lamellae.
● The gills are located inside the pharyngeal cavity and covered by an operculum or
gill slits.
● Water flows over the gills in a countercurrent arrangement to extract oxygen
efficiently.
● Some fish require continuous swimming to force water over their gills (ram
ventilation).
● Some fish can breathe air and live out of water for varying lengths of time.
Osmotic Regulation
● Freshwater fishes have to regulate their osmotic balance as they tend to gain water and lose salt
due to the difference in salt concentration between their body and freshwater.
● They have several mechanisms to maintain osmotic balance, such as pumping out excess water
through kidneys, absorbing salt ions from water through gill epithelium, and getting salt from their
food.
● Marine bony fishes have to regulate their osmotic balance differently as they tend to lose water and
gain salt due to the difference in salt concentration between their body and seawater.
● They drink seawater to compensate for water loss and dispose of excess salt through special
salt-secretory cells in the gills and excretion via feces or kidneys.
● Marine fish kidneys excrete divalent ions by tubular secretion instead of the usual
filtration-resorption sequence.
Feeding Behavior

● Feeding is a major concern for fish in their day-to-day living.

● Jaws were a major adaptation that allowed fish to adopt a predatory mode of life.
● Most fish are carnivores, but there are also herbivores, suspension feeders,
scavengers, and parasitic feeders.
● Digestion in most fish follows the vertebrate plan, with food passing from the stomach
to the intestine.
● Ray-finned fishes have numerous pyloric ceca that are involved in lipid absorption and
the secretion of digestive enzymes.
Migration
● Freshwater eels are catadromous and migrate to the sea to spawn.
● Their breeding grounds were unknown until Johann Schmidt's study in 1905, which discovered that they
spawn and die in the Sargasso Sea.
● After 6 to 15 years of growth, females return to the ocean to join the males in the journey back to the
Sargasso Sea.

● Salmon are anadromous and spend their adult lives at sea but return to freshwater streams to spawn.
● Pacific salmon have an infallible homing instinct and are guided upstream by the odor of their parent
stream.
● Salmon may navigate using the position of the sun, the earth's magnetic field, or their imprinted odor map.
Reproduction and Growth
● Fishes have diverse reproductive strategies, with oviparity being the most common mode of
reproduction.
● Marine fishes are prolific egg producers, while benthic spawners bury, attach, or incubate
their eggs.
● Freshwater fishes usually produce nonbuoyant eggs, and some provide egg care.
● Some fishes employ unusual reproductive strategies, such as sequential hermaphroditism
and ameiotic parthenogenesis.
● Fish larvae hatch with a yolk sac, undergo metamorphosis, and become juveniles with the
definitive body form of their species.
(Write name, year ,section and date)

Essay.
1. Write your observation of the different fishes in the documentary.