What is a Fish?

1
What is a Fish?

• a poikilothermic, aquatic chordate with
  appendages developed as fins, respiring mainly
  through gills and with a body covered by scales
  (Berra 1981)
• (Tuna, eel, catfish, lungfish)

2
What is a Fish?

• An aquatic vertebrate with gills and with limbs
  in the shape of fins (Nelson 1994)

3
Ichthyology

• 26000 species of fishes
• 85 jawless species
• 850 cartilagenous species
• 25000 bony species
• 200 new species described per year!

4
Fish species by habitat

• 41 freshwater
• 58 seawater
• 1 both fresh and seawater

• Water by Volume
• 97 Oceans
• 0.0093 Rivers- Lakes

5

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vzTur6nwyo3Yfeature
  related
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vJAtsPjFoMhofeature
  related

6

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vRM9o4VnfHJU

7
History of Ichthyology
8
History of Ichthyology 2

• Aristotle (384322 B.C.)
• Carolus Linneaus (1707-1778)
• Systema Naturae
• Peter Artedi (1705-1734)
• Marc Elieser Bloch (1723-1799)
• Systemae ichthyologiae
• Georges Cuvier Achille Valenciannes
  (early-mid 1800s)
• Histoire Naturelle des Poissons (24 volumes)

Pietsch TW, ed. 1995. Georges Cuvier, historical
portrait of the progress of ichthyology from its
origins to our own time. Baltimore Johns
Hopkins University Press.
9
History of Ichthyology 3

• Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
• On the Origin of Species (1859)
• Fishes in the same genus must have a common
  origin

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General Fin Morphology
Dorsal
Dorsal
Caudal
Anal
Pelvics
Pectorals
11
General Fin Morphology
Dorsal
Dorsal
Caudal
Pectorals
Anal
Pelvics
Anus
12
Body Shapes
Fusiform
Compressiform
Depressiform
Anguiliform
13
Body Shapes
Filiform
Taeniform
Sagittiform
Globiform
14
Fish can

• Create light
• Live up to 150 years
• Change sex
• Detect and produce electricity
• And many, many more..