Lecture 3 Fish

Agnatha, Placodermi, Acanthodii, Chondricthyes and Osteichthyes

The First Vertebrates: Class Agnatha

the first vertebrates lived about 500 mybp in the Cambrian era. they are placed in the class Agnatha, or jawless vertebrates the early agnathans are often referred to as ostracoderms shell skins in reference to their bony armour although ostracoderms have been extinct since about 300 mybp, we still have some extant members of the class Agnatha today

Ostracoderm Characteristics
no jaws single nostril on the top of the head (rather than a pair) tubular gill openings notochord in adults pharyngeal filter feeding endostyle organ few or no paired fins

KK Figs. 3.9, 3.10, H&G Figs 3.3, 3.4

Modern Agnatha (cyclostomes)

Living Agnatha are hagfishes (KK Fig. 3.5 a&b) and lampreys (KK Fig. 3.5 c&d). H&G Figs. 3.1, 3.2.

Modern Agnatha - Hagfish

Hagfish are marine fish that feed on dead fish or marine mammals.

Modern Agnatha - Lampreys

Lampreys are freshwater or anadromous agnathans, many of which are parasites on other fish as adults.

Lamprey - mouth showing teeth sea lamprey on lake trout

Lamprey larvae - ammocetes

The larval stages of lampreys live in streams, filter-feed while mostly buried in the sediment, and bear a strong similarity to cephalochordates. Recapitulation?

H&G Fig. 3.2, KK 3.5d

Primitive features of cyclostomes

no jaws single nostril on the top of the head tubular gill openings no paired fins notochord persists in adult pharyngeal filter-feeding in ammocete larvae

The mysterious conodonts?

A Devonian Lamprey
Priscomyzon riniensis, from South Africa 360 mybp

Lampetra fluviatilis, a modern lamprey

From Gess et al. 2006, Nature 443: 981

Fishes with Jaws

Fishes with jaws appear in the fossil record about 400 mybp, or about 100 million years after Agnatha during the Silurian period. By the Devonian age of fishes four classes of fishes with jaws were diverse and abundant. Jaws apparently evolved from bones supporting the anterior gills, and allowed fish to become effective predators rather than filter feeders (we will return to this later!).

monkfish

Classes Placodermi and Acanthodii

These two classes are both extinct, but were abundant during the Devonian (approx. 400 mybp) Both were heavily armoured, active predators.
Placoderms (KK 3.12, H&G 3.5) Acanthodians(KK 3.14, H&G 3.8)

Class Chondricthyes - cartilaginous fishes

Jawed fishes with cartilage rather than bony skeletons. Most with unique scales (dermal denticles), unique teeth, spiracles, and slitlike gill openings. Known as fossils since > 400 mybp. Two subclasses, Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays) and Holocephali (ratfishes or chimaeras)

Subclass Elasmobranchii 1 (Sharks)

These are mostly active, free-swimming elasmobranchs with streamlined bodies and large heterocercal tails.
Streamlined, fusiform,often pelagic.

Subclass Elasmobranchii 2 - skates and rays

Dorso-ventrally flattened, many specialized for bottom feeding.

Subclass Holocephali
chimaeras or ratfishes
Deep-sea chondrichthyans with a fleshy operculum covering the gills.

KK 3.13b, H&G Fig. 3.7

KK Fig 3.8. Hypothesized relationships among the early fishes. Note that Actinopterygii are not fully shown.

Class Osteichthyes - bony fishes

more species than any other class of vertebrates for the last 150 million years bony skeletons, scales, operculum two subclasses: subclass Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) subclass Sarcopterygii (fleshy-finned fishes)

Living Actinopterygii with a long history

KK 3.17, H&G 3.9, 3.10

Local fishes
Acipenser = sturgeon Lepisosteus = gar Amia = bowfin

These Actinopterygii go back as fossils for millions of years and share some primitive traits, including: - lungs - heterocercal (assymmetric) tails - bony (ganoid) scales covered with enamel - notochord in adults

Modern Actinopterygii (teleosts)

KK 3.17 H&G 3.11

Atlantic Salmon (Salmo)

-soft, flexible (elasmoid) scales - symmetrical (homocercal) tail - gas bladder rather than lungs

Functional Significance of Tail Shape

KK 1.1 H&G 27.18

Sarcopterygii - Crossopterygii
Sarcopterygii have fins with a fleshy base. Two groups are often distinguished; one is the crossopterygians. These are extinct except for a single species, the coelocanth, but ancestral to the tetrapods or land-dwelling vertebrates.

Crossopterygii, KK 3.18, H&G 3.12

Coelocanth (Latimeria)

Sarcopterygii - lungfish
KK 3.19, H&G 3.12

Fish Evolutionary Tree

KK Figs 3.8 and 3.16

5 classes of fish: Agnatha, Placodermi, Acanthodii, Chondrichthyes,and Osteichthyes. Which two are extinct? Which is largest?