Topic Characters and

Affinities of Dipnoi

Presented by

Nitu Juyal
M.Sc.3rd Sem
Zoology

Characters

Fins
Paired fins are found in dipnoi fishes.
Paired fins are supported by dermal

fin rays which are jointed branched

and formed of a bony structure.
They are slender and more
numerous and archipterygial type.

Endoskeleton
Skeleton is largely cartilaginous.
The vertebral column consists of
paired basidorsal and basiventral
cartilaginous elements only.
Pleural ribs are present and skull is
autostylic.

Alimentary canal
The pharynx leads into the

oesophagus, stomach and

intestine. The rectum opens into a
small cloaca.
The liver is a large bilobed gland
and gall bladder lies between the
two lobes.
Pancreas is well developed.

Respiration
Both aquatic and aerial respiration

are combined in the lung fishes.

Six branchial arches with five gill
slits are present in protopterus.
The Neoceratodus, only four pairs
of gills are developed and each
branchial arch bears a double row
of gill filaments.
Air bladder develop as a median
ventral outgrowth of the
oesophagus.It is highly vascular
and functions as a lung for aerial
respiration.

Blood vascular system

The heart lies in a pericardial cavity

a little behinf the gills.

The heart is incompletely divided
into arterial and venous channels.
Venous blood runs through the right
side and oxygenated blood through
the left side of the heart.
The atrio-ventricular opening is
closed or opened. Pulmonary vein
bringing oxygenated blood from the
lungs, passes through the sinus
venosus and opens into the left
auricle.
The deoxygenate blood from the
rest of the body is poured into the
right side of the sinus venosus
passes to the right auricle.

Excretory system
The excretory system consists of a

pair of mesonephric kidneys which

discharge into the cloaca through the
ureters.
In the female a pair of ovaries are
present close to the kidneys . A pair
of oviducts open by funnel-like
apertures into the abdominal cavity.
In the male, a pair of elongated testes
are present close to the kidneys.
The anterior part of the testis serves
for spermatogenesis and the posterior
part acts as a vesicula seminalis.
The two vasa deferentia join to open
into the cloaca.

Nervous system
A pair of well developed cerebral hemispheres

are present in brain.

Cerebellum is small and the optic lobes are
fused to form a single oval body.

Affinities

Amphibia

The heart of Dipnoi resembles with

that of an amphibian in having two

auricles and a conus divided by a
longitudinal valve.
A pulmonary artery and a pulmonary
vein are present.
A pair of external nostrils and an
inferior vena cava and an anterior
abdominal vein are present as in
amphibians.
Jaw suspension is autostylic.

Teleostomi
Presence of a layer of cosmine

covering the scales.

Presence of a swim bladder,
although modified into lung.
Presence of a spiral valve in the
intestine.
Similar lobate paired fins.
Presence of powerful splenial and
palatine teeth.

Crossopterygii
Presence of internal nostrils.
Tail is diphycercal.
Paired fins are lobate.
Scales are covered with a layer

of cosmine.
Intestine has a long spiral
valve.
Similarity in the bones of the
skull.

Thank you.