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17 views

7_Form_Function_Fall_2024 icthyology

Uploaded by

soapykitten
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lecture 7- Form and Function

1. General concepts on fish body forms


2. General fin pattern
3. Fins as preadaptations
1. -Pectoral fins
2. -Pelvic fins
3. -Caudal fins
4. -Anal fins
5. -Dorsal fins
4. Other preadapations
5. Swimming principles
6. Swimming performances and modes
Fish body form

Roll
Pitch

Yaw

• fishes are subject to 3 different movements


• fins and bodies are adapted to control these movements
Fish body form

Posterior
Anterior
Fish body form

- maneuverability

- benthic lifestyle
"An eel-like body Fish body form
facilitates forwards
and backwards
movements into and
out of tight places and
soft bottoms" - The
Diversity of Fishes:
Biology, Evolution, fusiform bodies are
and Ecology undoubtedly the result
of energetic
advantages

ovate bodies can


deter predation
among other things
Fish body form
Fish body form
Fish body form
finlets and keels

…the need for speed


Fish body form

Mouths
• position correlates
with trophic
ecology in many
fishes

• superior

• terminal

• inferior
Fish body form
Dentition reflects diet … we often see convergence
Fish body form
Fish body form
Gill rakers
• morphology large prey
corresponds quite
closely with diet

intermediate
prey

filter feeder/zooplankton
Fish body form
1st gill arch (most anterior)

Number of gill rakers can be diagnostic in taxa identification


Fish body form

ram

suction
Fish body form

cirri: fleshy flaps


- camouflage
- chemoreceptors

great for ID
Fish body form

Roll
Pitch

Yaw

• fishes are subject to 3 different movements


• fins and bodies are adapted to control these movements
Preadaptations
• a trait can evolve because it served one particular
function but subsequently it may come to serve
another
• results in shift of trait function during evolution
gurnards (Triglidae) Fins as preadaptations
Pectoral fins

• modified pectoral fin rays


• touch and taste

• run length of their body

• generate lift
Fins as preadaptations
Pelvic fin
Chondrichthyans
clingfishes (Gobiesocidae)
• adhesion

Northern
clingfish pelvic + pectoral

• internal fertilization

• generate lift
Fins as preadaptations
Pelvic fin
Fins as
preadaptations
Caudal fin

• stunning prey
Fins as
preadaptations
Caudal fin
livebearers
(Poecillidae)
Fins as preadaptations
Anal fin
• internal fertilization
intromittent organ: male organ
specialized for sperm delivery

gonopodium

surfperches
(Embiotocidae)
• adhesion Fins as
preadaptations
Dorsal fin

• defensive locking mechanism

• lure
Fins as
preadaptations
Dorsal fin
Fins as
preadaptations
Dorsal fin

esca

ilicium
Fins as
preadaptations
Dorsal fin
Other preadaptations
Other preadaptations

• stereo-chemoreception
Swimming efficency

Key parameters describing the jet are related in a ratio


known as the Strouhal number, defined as the product of
the frequency of tail flapping times the jet’s width,
divided by the fish’s speed. A Strouhal number between
0.25 and 0.35 is a hallmark of efficient swimming.
Swimming efficency

Examples of
Strouhal values
Swimming modes

Weight
3.37 Nm

Thrust
Drag 11.12 Nm
10.58 Nm

Medial
6.96 Nm
(per fin) Lift
3.24 Nm
Swimming efficiency

Water
• 800x denser than air

• 50x more viscous than


air

• 95% reduction in O2
carrying capacity
Swimming efficiency
characteristic of chondrichthyes

aka dermal denticle

reduced turbulence and


viscous drag

• Scales in the mouths of


some of the earliest
known vertebrates
evolved into teeth
Swimming efficiency

White shark
Swimming efficency

surface covered in
ganoine (mineralized
tissue)

loss of ganoine
Swimming efficiency cycloid

many teleost taxa have cycloid & ctenoid scales ctenoid


Swimming modes
- via tail
Carangiform
Swimming modes
- via fins
Labriform
Swimming modes
- most of body
Anguilliform
Swimming modes
- via fins
Ostraciform

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