Phylum Chordata: Bony Fishes

The following questions will help you to review the material from the lecture, the laboratory, as well as the text.

1. What does an ichthyologist study?
2. When can one find the origin of the bony fishes in the fossil record?
3. What proportion of the vertebrates is represented by bony fishes?
4. Are bony fishes more diverse in the marine real (salt water) than the freshwater realm?
5. It is interesting to compare the current biodiversity of bony fishes in the freshwater and the saltwater environment. What kind of conclusions can you draw from the biodiversity data?
6. Why are there more freshwater species than saltwater species per unit area? Aren't there many more niches in the saltwater realm considering the fact that the Earth is 70% ocean?
7. How does a bony fish differ from a shark in terms of its external morphology? How do the fins differ between these two groups of fishes (generalize)?
8. Describe the scales of a bony fish. What are they made of? What is their function?
9. What is an operculum?
10. The body shapes of fishes show an amazing array of diversity. Explain why there are so many different body shapes in this class of fishes?
11. Give at least five different examples of body shapes found in the bony fishes. Explain the adaptive value of each shape that you mention.
12. How do pigmentation patterns vary among the bony fishes? Give four different examples of how bony fishes use body pigmentation for different purposes.
13. What is countershading? Describe the phenomenon as well as its function. In what kind of habitat can you expect to find countershading among the fishes?
14. How does a typical bony fish move through the water? Make a connection between the location of the muscles of a fish and their movement patterns.
15. Are all fishes strong swimmers? Where can you expect to find the fastest and strongest swimmers in the class?
16. Describe the internal anatomy of a typical bony fish (such as the perch you dissected in lab)
17. Describe the structure of the swim bladder. Do all fishes have a swim bladder? What is the function of the swim bladder?
18. How do fishes control the gas content (and pressure) of the swim bladder (if present).
19. The mouth parts of bony fishes are extremely diversifies. Give five different examples of mouth parts and how these are specialized for different types of diets.
20. Do fishes chew (macerate) their food items? Why or why not?
21. What is unusual about the mouth parts of deep sea fishes?
22. Describe the digestive system of a fish?
23. Describe the circulatory system of a fish?
24. How do bony fishes perform gas exchange? How does it differ from the cartilaginous fishes (Class Chondrichthyes)?
25. Describe the life cycle of a bony fish.
26. What kinds of sensory systems dominate among the bony fishes? What kind of stimuli do fishes respond to?
27. Why do fishes school? Advantages? Disadvantages?
28. What is unusual about lungfishes? Where can you expect to find these kinds of fishes?
29. The African Lungfish has a spectacular life cycle. How does this fish species survive droughts?
30. What is estivation?
31. How did the lungs evolve in these fishes? Consider its anatomical origin as well as the environmental selective pressure that favored its presence.
32. Lobe-finned fishes: the coelacanth was only known as a fossil until 1938 when live specimens were captured off the coast of Africa. What is so interesting about the anatomy of the coelacanth?
33. Describe the unusual anatomical characteristics of the fins of the coelacanth.
34. How are these structures connected to our understanding of how life made a transition from water to land?

Page created by: Peter Svensson Updated: April 21,  2015