Fish anatomy is primarily governed by the physical characteristics of water, which is much denser than air, holds a relatively small amount of dissolved oxygen, and absorbs more light than air does.
Fins
, (2) -
lateral line, (3) -
dorsal fin, (4) -
adipose fin, -- (5) -
caudal peduncle, (6) -
caudal fin, (7) -
anal fin, (8) -
photophores, -- (9) -
pelvic fins (paired), (10) -
pectoral fins (paired)]]
The fins are the most distinctive features of a fish, composed of bony spines protruding from the body with skin covering them and joining them together, either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or more similar to a flipper, as seen in sharks. These usually serve as a means for the fish to swim. Fins can also be used for gliding or crawling, as seen in the flying fish and frogfish. Fins located in different places on the fish serve different purposes, such as moving forward, turning, and keeping an upright position.
Spines and rays
In bony fish, most fins may have
spines or
rays. A fin can contain only spiny rays, only soft rays, or a combination of both. If both are present, the spiny rays are always
anterior. Spines are generally stiff and sharp. Rays are generally soft, flexible, segmented, and may be branched. This segmentation of rays is the main difference that separates them from spines; spines may be flexible in certain species, but they will never be segmented.
Spines have a variety of uses. In catfish, they are used as a form of defense; many catfish have the ability to lock their spines outwards. Trigger fish also use spines to lock themselves in crevices to prevent them being pulled out.
Types of fin
Dorsal fins are located on the back. A fish can have up to three of them. The dorsal fins serve to protect the fish against rolling, and assists in sudden turns and stops.
* In anglerfish, the anterior of the dorsal fin is modified into an illicium and esca, a biological equivalent to a fishing pole and a lure.
* The bones that support the dorsal fin are called Pterygiophore. There are two to three of them: "proximal", "middle", and "distal". In spinous fins the distal is often fused to the middle, or not present at all.
The
caudal fin is the tail fin, located at the end of the caudal peduncle and is used for propulsion.
* The tail can be heterocercal, which means that the vertebrae extend into a larger lobe of the tail or that the tail is asymmetrical
** Epicercal means that the upper lobe is longer (as in sharks)
** Hypocercal means that the lower lobe is longer (as in flying fish)
* Protocercal means that the caudal fin extends around the vertebral column, present in embryonic fish and hagfish. This is not to be confused with a caudal fin that has fused with the dorsal and anal fins to form a contiguous fin.
* Diphycercal refers to the special, three-lobed caudal fin of the coelacanth and lungfish where the vertebrae extend all the way to the end of the tail.
* Most fish have a homocercal tail, where the vertebrae do not extend into a lobe and the fin is more or less symmetrical. This can be expressed in a variety of shapes.
** The tail fin may be rounded at the end.
** The tail fin may be truncated, or end in a more-or-less vertical edge (such as in salmon).
** The fin may be forked, or end in two prongs.
** The tail fin may be emarginate, or with a slight inward curve.
** The tail fin may be lunate, or shaped like a crescent moon.
The anal fin is located on the ventral surface behind the anus. This fin is used to stabilize the fish while swimming.
The paired pectoral fins are located on each side, usually just behind the operculum, and are homologous to the forelimbs of tetrapods.
A peculiar function of pectoral fins, highly developed in some fish, is the creation of the dynamic lifting force that assists some fish, such as sharks, in maintaining depth and also enables the "flight" for flying fish. Thunnus obesus showing finlets and keels.Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling]]
* In many fish, the pectoral fins aid in walking, especially in the lobe-like fins of some anglerfish and in the mudskipper.
* Certain rays of the pectoral fins may be adapted into finger-like projections, such as in sea robins and flying gurnards.
** The "horns" of manta rays and their relatives are called cephalic fins; this is actually a modification of the anterior portion of the pectoral fin.
The paired pelvic or ventral fins are located ventrally below the pectoral fins. They are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. The pelvic fin assists the fish in going up or down through the water, turning sharply, and stopping quickly.
* In gobies, the pelvic fins are often fused into a single sucker disk. This can be used to attach to objects.
The adipose fin is a soft, fleshy fin found on the back behind the dorsal fin and just forward of the caudal fin. It is absent in many fish families, but is found in Salmonidae, characins and catfishes.
Some types of fast-swimming fish have a horizontal caudal keel just forward of the tail fin. This is a lateral ridge on the caudal peduncle, usually composed of scutes (see below), that provides stability and support to the caudal fin. There may be a single paired keel, one on each side, or two pairs above and below.
Finlets are small fins, generally behind the dorsal and anal fins (in bichirs, there are only finlets on the dorsal surface and no dorsal fin). In some fish such as tuna or sauries, they are rayless, non-retractable, and found between the last dorsal and/or anal fin and the caudal fin.
For every fin, there are a number of fish species in which this particular fin has been lost during evolution.
Reproductive system
Internal fertilization
In many species of fish, fins have been modified to allow internal fertilization.
A
gonopodium is an anal fin that is modified into an
intromittent organ in males of certain species of live-bearing fish in the families
Anablepidae and
Poeciliidae. It is movable and used to impregnate females during mating. The male's anal fin’s 3rd, 4th and 5th rays are formed into a tube like structure in which the sperm of the fish is ejected. In some species, the gonopodium may be as much as 50% of the total body length. Occasionally the fin is too long to be used, as in the "lyretail" breeds of
Xiphophorus helleri. Hormone treated females may develop gonopodia. These are useless for breeding. One finds similar organs having the same characteristics in other types of fish, for example the
andropodium in the
Hemirhamphodon or in the
Goodeidae.
When ready for mating, the gonopodium becomes “erect” and points forward, towards the female. The male shortly inserts the organ into the sex opening of the female, with hook-like adaptations that allow the fish to grip onto the female to insure impregnation. If a female remains stationary and her partner contacts her vent with his gonopodium, she is fertilized. The sperm is preserved in the female's oviduct. This allows females to, at any time, fertilize themselves without further assistance of males.
Male cartilaginous fish have claspers modified from pelvic fins. These are intromittent organs, used to channel semen into the female's cloaca during copulation.
Skin
The outer body of many fish is covered with
scales. Some species are covered instead by
scutes. Others have no outer covering on the skin; these are called
naked fish. Most fish are covered in a protective layer of slime (mucus).
There are four types of fish scales.
# Placoid scales, also called dermal denticles, are similar to teeth in that they are made of dentin covered by enamel. They are typical of sharks and rays.
# Ganoid scales are flat, basal-looking scales that cover a fish body with little overlapping. They are typical of gar and bichirs.
# Cycloid scales are small oval-shaped scales with growth rings. Bowfin and remora have cycloid scales.
# Ctenoid scales are similar to the cycloid scales, with growth rings. They are distinguished by spines that cover one edge. Halibut have this type of scale.
Another, less common, type of scale is the scute, which is:
an external shield-like bony plate, or
a modified, thickened scale that often is keeled or spiny, or
a projecting, modified (rough and strongly ridged) scale, usually associated with the lateral line, or on the caudal peduncle forming caudal keels, or along the ventral profile. Some fish, such as pineconefish, are completely or partially covered in scutes.
Vertebrae
The
vertebrae of
lobe-finned fishes consist of three discrete bony elements. The vertebral arch surrounds the spinal cord, and is of broadly similar form to that found in most other vertebrates. Just beneath the arch lies a small plate-like
pleurocentrum, which protects the upper surface of the
notochord, and below that, a larger arch-shaped
intercentrum to protect the lower border. Both of these structures are embedded within a single cylindrical mass of cartilage. A similar arrangement was found in primitive
tetrapods, but, in the evolutionary line that led to reptiles (and hence, also to mammals and birds), the intercentrum became partially or wholly replaced by an enlarged pleurocentrum, which in turn became the bony vertebral body.
In cartilagenous fish, such as sharks, the vertebrae consist of two cartilagenous tubes. The upper tube is formed from the vertebral arches, but also includes additional cartilagenous structures filling in the gaps between the vertebrae, and so enclosing the spinal cord in an essentially continuous sheath. The lower tube surrounds the notochord, and has a complex structure, often including multiple layers of calcification.
Lampreys have vertebral arches, but nothing resembling the vertebral bodies found in all higher vertebrates. Even the arches are discontinuous, consisting of separate pieces of arch-shaped cartilage around the spinal cord in most parts of the body, changing to long strips of cartilage above and below in the tail region. Hagfishes lack a true vertebral column, and are therefore not properly considered vertebrates, but a few tiny neural arches are present in the tail.
The jaw
|thumb|left|250px]]
have two sets of jaws: the oral jaws that capture prey and the pharyngeal jaws that advance into the mouth and move prey from the oral jaws to the esophagus for swallowing|thumb]]
Linkage systems are widely distributed in animals. The most thorough overview of the different types of linkages in animals has been provided by M. Muller,
External links
Interactive visual of the anatomy of a fish
Mongabay.com
Category:Ichthyology
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Category:Fishkeeping
![ANCIENT MOTHER ~ Robert Gass [runtime 6:02]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110410173350im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6rYw8C8GhlY/0.jpg "ANCIENT MOTHER ~ Robert Gass [runtime 6:02]")
