4 characteristics

1. Notochord

2. post-anal tail

3. pharyngeal gill slits

4. dorsal hollow nerve cord

Notochord: In most skeletons a complex jointed skeleton develops and the notocord is retained in adults at the gelatinous material of discs between the vertebrae.

dorsal hollow nerve cord: The brain and spinal cord develop from this.

Chordate Characteristics

• Includes 3 Subphyla:

1. Urochordata

2. Cephalochordata

3. Vertebrata

Sea Squirts

• sponge like - filter feeder

• Most are sessile marine animals which adhere to rocks

• Only have the pharyngeal gill slits ( lack the other 3) chordate traits

• Lancets (a primitive fish like organism) closely resembles the idealized chordate.– The notochord, dorsal nerve cord, numerous gill slits,

and post-anal tail all persist in the adult

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Have a Backbone(Chordate Coelomate Deuterostomes)

     1. About 45,000 extant species of vertebrates are in subphylum Vertebrata.

        2. Vertebrates have all four chordate characteristics sometime during their lives.

Subphylum Vertebrata (backbone/vertebrae)Superclass Agnatha (jawless fishes –

lampreys, etc.)Superclass Gnathostomates (jawed animals)

Class Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes sharks) Class Osteichthyes (bony fishes)

Class Amphibia (frogs, salamanders, newts) Class Reptilia (lizards, snakes, turtles, gators) Class Aves (birds)

Class Mammalia

Jawless fish are agnathans;

63 species belong to superclass Agnatha.        

Lampreys and hagfish are modern jawless fishes; they lack a bony skeleton

They have smooth non-scaly skin; have cylindrical bodies, and are up to a meter long.

Many lampreys are filter feeders; others are parasitic with a round muscular mouth called a buccal cavity equipped with teeth to attach themselves to fish and suck nutrients from the host's circulatory system.        

Sea Lamprey – Jawless fish

Placoderms are extinct jawed fishes.

They were armored with heavy plates and had strong jaws.

Small, jawless, and fin-less ostracoderms are extinct vertebrate (fossils).

They were filter feeders also able to move water through their gills by muscular action.            

MammalsFish (Osteichthyes: bony fish,

Chondrichthyes: cartilage fish) Birds :AvesReptiles

Amphibians

Amphibians About 3,900 species Characteristics: Are cold-blooded vertebrate

(backbone) Lay their eggs in water Lack any skin coverings such as

fur, scales or feathers

Amphibians

Young amphibians tend to resemble . small fish.

Amphibian means "two lives," a reference to the change that frogs go through as .

they move from egg to tadpole to frog.  Even as adults, most frogs and other 

amphibians must stay close to water. 

3 Orders of:Amphibians 1. Order Anura: frog and toads 2. Order Caudata : salamanders,.  3. Order Gymnophiona: caecilians

Order : Caudata

Salamanders & newts have a long body & tail, & two pair of legs

Salamanders and newts are carnivorous, eating insects, snails

Salamanders walk with a side to side gait

• Caecilians are legless; burrow in soil and feed on worms,

• A tongue is used for catching prey, and is attached at the front of the mouth.

• Eyelids called nicitating membranes keep eyes moist.• Ears (tympanum) adapted for detecting sound waves.• larynx produces calls

Brain larger than fishes; cerebral cortex is more developed. Amphibians usually have small lungs ( described as 2 simple

air sacs) supplemented by gas exchange across porous skin…..So frogs have both cutaneous and pulmonary respiration.

Frogs have a closed double-loop circulatory system.A three-chambered heart (2atria, 1 ventricle) pumps mixed

blood before and after it has gone to the lungs

• Skin is thin, smooth, and non-scaly, and contains numerous mucous glands; skin plays an active role in osmotic balance and respiration.

• Amphibians are ectothermic, depending upon external heat to regulate body temperature.

• If winter temperature drops too low, ectotherms become inactive and enter torpor

• The cloaca is the structure that both the colon and bladder empty into

• The structure on the male that resembles the oviduct on the female is the vestigial oviduct

• The kidneys are positioned retroperitoneal• There are 2 types of teeth: vomerine and maxillary teeth• Frogs breath thru positive pressure, no ribs, no diaphragm,

just gulp air and close nare and mouth and force oxygen into lungs

 

Frogs and toads are tailless as adults; The hind limbs are specialized for jumping. Frogs and toads have head and trunk fused; and do not have ribs Frogs live near fresh water,toads live in damp places away from water. They shed eggs into the water for external fertilization. Generally, eggs protected by a coat of jelly but not by a shell.Young hatch into aquatic larvae with gills (tadpoles). Larvae usually undergo metamorphosis to develop into a terrestrial adult.

   

        20,000 species of bony fishes         Bony fishes have a bony skeleton; most are ray-finned with thin, bony rays . supporting fins. A few are lobe-finned fishes.

  Fish are covered by scales formed in rings, the rings are close together in the winter and further apart in the summer, so can be used to determine age of fish.

The scales contain the pigment Chromatophores that create various color pigments.Mucus cover the fish skin and help to waterproof the skin ( serves as protection from parasites and reduces friction as fish moves thru water.            

Swim bladder

v Is a gas-filled sac whose pressure alters to regulate buoyancy and depth.

v Can be single chambered sac. ex troutv 3 chambered bladder ex codfishv Or not present at all ex Tunav In addition to buoyancy, it can help amplify

sound for better hearing

The gills do not open separately and instead are covered by an operculum

Have a 2 chamber heart: 1 atria, 1 ventricle Taste buds: fish have taste buds on the

external surface of skins, lips and fins. Catfish have special barbels that are packed

with taste buds

Bottom dwelling/ slow moving fish have square or rounded fins

Ex Clown goby

Fast swimming fish have deeply forked caudal fins Ex Blue chromis

Nervous system

The chief function of the lateral line is to sense extremely low-frequency vibrations, as well as to sense the motion of other nearby fish and prey but in some species it can also detect weak electrical field (ex catfish and sharks)that detect

Other fish, like the electric eel, can produce their own electricity.

Determining the sex of fishvaries from species to species ranging from super

easy to impossible and…. Some fish are born all males and the dominant in a

pair will convert to the female ( the larger of the 2 in a pair)

Others are all born females and the dominant converts to the male ( the larger of the 2 in a pair)

Gonopodium in male live bearers such as platies and mollies

Male Platy

Female platy

Difference between Fresh and salt water fish

In general fresh water fish are more hardier than marine fish, they must withstand the rapid and dramatic changes in the water conditions that occur

Most marine fish however are adapted to a constant environmental conditions

Fresh water fish release large amount of urine, and don’t drink water, they take in large amount of water by osmosis ( have more salt in body than surrounding water)

Salt water fish constantly drink water, due to the salt content in sea water….they must drink equal to 1% body weight each hour or could dehydrate ) more salt surrounding them than in their body and are threatened by water loss)

Anabantoids Ex Bettas and Gourami

Have axillary breathing organs (in addition to their gills) called labyrinth organ

This organ consists of tiny folded membranes located in the head between gills and helps the fish to live in areas with poor water conditions

Deny them access to water surface and they will drown

Oxygen in H2O

Fish use over 20% of their total energy expenditure just to breath

Water temperature, altitude, time of day, and season can all affect the amount of oxygen in the water; water holds less oxygen at warmer temperatures and high altitudes.

DO is measured either in milligrams per liter (mg/L) or "percent saturation

Designated Use Lowest acceptable DO levels (mg/l)*

Warm water fish need a minimum of 5(mg/l DO) Cold water fish need a minimum of 6(mg/l DO)

above 7 mg/L may be required for spawning As dissolved oxygen levels in water drop below 5

mg/L, aquatic life is put under stress Less than 2 (mg/l DO) will not support aquatic life

Do Fish sleep? Most all fish spend time in an energy-saving state that can be called

"rest", and we might even call their behavior "sleep", though it is probably different than "sleep" in most land animals .

The best-known 'sleepers' are the parrotfishes (family Scaridae). Many parrotfishes find a suitable spot on the seafloor and secrete a

mucus envelope in which they spend the night.

Do Fish sleep?

Many fish, like Bass and perch, rest on or under logs at night.

Coral reef fish active in the day, hide and rest in crevices and cracks in the reef to avoid being eaten at night.

The resting behavior of fish is very different from their behavior the rest of the day.

Coelacanths:

Once “believed” to be extinct for 70,000,000 years, based on fossil “evidence”.Now hundreds have been caught.

FishCharacteristics: Are cold-blooded vertebrate

(backbone) Live in water Usually have paired fins,

gills, and scales

FishMost fish lay large numbers of eggs, but some have live birth.

Most fish breathe by drawing water over four or five pairs of gills.

Dyed Fish

With all of the beautifully colored fish in the world, it is amazing that people feel the need to "improve upon" natural beauty.

And yet, fish stores around the world stock fish that have been dipped, tattooed, or injected with dyes.

These fish suffer a very high immediate mortality rate, and those that survive often have a greatly increased chance of future illness.

Tattoos Some fish are tattooed with very intricate patterns

that would look gorgeous on a human. Unlike human recipients of tattoos, these fish have

not given their permission to painfully modify their body.

Further, it is harder for a fish to protect against follow-up infection than it is for a human to protect against the same.

http://cichlidresearch.com/gifs/parrot/Lipstick_parrot_DSC_0041.JPG

Dipping

Another process involves dipping fish in a chemical that burns away the slime-coat followed by a dip in high-concentration dye. Though not as invasive as tattooing or injection, it removes the fishes' first line of protection and then coats the gills and probably stomach of the fish affected

This affects respiration and likely other body functions, as well.

Injection Other fish are injected with dye. In some cases, this creates an all-over color change.

In others, it creates little pockets of dye. One of the most considerable changes comes from

the injection of fluorescent dye into the Glassfish. This creates little fluorescent pockets in the fish. While neat-looking, the process involves a needle

bore that would be the equivalent of using a #2 pencil as a needle for a human.

Fish Feel Pain While it may seem obvious that fish are able to feel pain,

like every other animal, some people still think of fish as swimming vegetables.

In fact, regarding the ability to feel pain, fish are equal to dogs, cats, and all other animals. Dr. Donald Broom, scientific advisor to the British government, explains,

"The scientific literature is quite clear. Anatomically, physiologically and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and mammals."

Genetically Engineered fish

Glo fish Are zebra danios that have

The process, begins by adding a fluorescence gene to the fish before it hatches from its egg.

Once the gene integrates into the genome of the embryo, the developing fish will be able to pass the fluorescence gene along to its offspring upon maturity.

Because of this, the gene only needs to be added to one embryo; from that point forward, all subsequent fluorescent fish are the result of traditional breeding.

Green glo fish: have a green fluorescent protein (GFP), originally extracted from a jellyfish, that naturally produced bright green bioluminescence.

red fluorescent zebra fish have a red color by adding a gene from a sea coral,

yellow fluorescent zebra fish, by adding a variant of the jellyfish gene

Blood red Parrot fish Because this hybrid cichlid has various anatomical

deformities, controversy exists over the ethics of creating the Blood Parrot. One of the most obvious, and also deadly, deformities is its mouth, which only has very narrow vertical opening. This makes blood parrot very hard to feed.

Engineer goby mimics the posionous marine catfish when small, then changes appearance

as it grows

Scribbled AngelFish

Chondrichthyes

The class of Cartilaginous fish (shark,skates, and rays)

• 850 species of sharks, rays, and skates

Chondrichthyes

 Sharks have five to seven gill slits on both sides of the pharynx; no gill covers.

 Body covered by epidermal placoid (tooth-like) scales; teeth are enlarged scales. Sharks have a streamlined body

Sharp vision, colorblind Teeth embedded in gum, not anchored in jaw

Chondrichthyes

Three senses detect: smells, electric currents, pressure (a lateral line system).

Have a 2 chambered heart (1 atria, 1 ventricle)

Most are fast predators; great white shark eats dolphins and seals.

Chondrichthyes

Rays & skates live on ocean floor; pectoral fins enlarged into wing-like fins.

Stingrays have a venomous spine. Electric rays stun prey with electric shock of over 300 volts.

MOST COMMON SHARK

The piked dogfish shark (Squalus acanthias) is very abundant, especially in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a small shark, about 63 inches (1.6 m) long.

Closed Circulatory Systems (Blood Loops)

Fish (One loop)- Heart to gills to body to heart

Amphibians- Larvae (one loop)- Adult (two loops)

* Heart to the lungs and back to the heart* Heart to the body and back to the heart

Reptiles (two loops – three chambered heart)

Birds (two loops – four chambered heart)

Mammals (two loops – four chambered heart)

Comparing Circulatory Systems (Blood flow)

Characteristics: Are dioeciousMost are oviparous: Lay

leathery eggs on land Are often called cold-

blooded: they can't regulate their own body temperature

Reptiles

Characteristics: Have scales Have a 3 chambered heart

( 2atria, 1ventricle) Respiration: lungs more

finely divided than Amphibians, have jointed ribs that expand lungs

Reptiles 6,000 species

Reptiles do not use energy to fuel internal "furnaces"

Although reptiles breathe through lungs, some reptiles can also absorb oxygen in water through their mouth.

Reptiles

1. Squamata: lizards and snakes

2. Chelonia: Turtles (aquatic), and tortoises (land)

3.Crocodila: crocodiles and alligators

Reptile Orders:

Characteristics: 3 pit vipors in North America

are: cottonmouth, copperhead and rattlesnake

3 largest snakes: python, Boa, Anaconda

Largest venomous snake is king cobra

Snakes:

Characteristics: Pit vipors use pits to see

warm objects in dark.

Snakes:

Snakes constitute the suborder Serpentes (or Ophidia )

1. Most snakes can climb and almost all can swim. 2. By looking at a snake, no one can distinguish

between a male or female. 3. Snakes also pick up some airborne vibrations via

their lungs. 4. New Zealand has no snakes at all! 5. Snakes are incapable of   learning. This is because

they lack the enlarged Cerebral Hemispheres   found in birds and mammals, this part of the brain controls learning and thought.

6. Snakes move by using special muscles attached to their ribs. If you put a snake on a smooth piece of glass, the snake will not be able to move because there is nothing to grab onto.

7. Snakes can swallow big prey, three times bigger   than their own mouth.. On a couple of occasions, some snakes have swallowed whole Tigers.

8. Most snakes have over 200 teeth. They   use these teeth to hold their prey in place while eating. They   cannot chew with these teeth because they are pointing backwards  

9. The body of the snake contains a string of vertebrae ( more than 120 in the body and tail and in some species as many as 585)

10. Snakes are deaf to airborne sounds. 11. Snakes move slower than an adult human can run; the

fastest recorded speed achieved by any snake is about 13 km/hr (8 mph), but few can go that fast.

12. Snakes have no movable eyelids or external ears. 13. You can't tell the age of a rattlesnake by counting its

rattles   because it gets a new rattle each time it sheds its skin, which   can occur 1 to 6 times per year.

14. Common Cobra venom is not on the list of top 10 venoms yet is still 40 times more toxic than cyanide

15. The fastest moving land snake is the Black Mamba

Jaws can readily dislocate to engulf large food. A tongue collects airborne molecules to transfer them to Jacobson's organ for tasting. Some are poisonous with special fangs.

Photo of hip region of

The photo is of the hip region of Najash rionegrina, an extinct snake.

The right femur is in the upper part of the photo Once upon a time, snakes had legs, and a new

discovery reveals at least one had hips too. The real kicker is that the snake has hip

vertebrae, which likely allowed the critter to use its legs to dig and crawl.

Snake Anatomy

picture of a carcass of an alligator as it protudes out from the body of a dead

Burmese python in Everglades National Park, Florida the National Park

            Lizards have four clawed legs and are carnivorous.Chameleons live in trees; have a long sticky tongue to catch insects, and change color.                

Creation “Magnifying the LORD!”How does a Gecko walk on smooth glass?www.lclark.edu/~autumn/........

Gecko’s toes sticking to super-smooth semiconductor glass:

Varieties of Gecko Feet

Gecko hanging upside down from smooth glass:

One toe from a Gecko:

Each pad on each toe has many thousands of “Setae”

Thousands of setae on each toe:

This is a single, isolated “Setal”:

The tip of the setal, with thousands of spatulae:

The tips of a few setae:

The tip of a single setal, showing thousands of spatulae:

Thousands of “spatulae” on each setal:

God’s awesome design defies evolution:

- Each toe has thousands of setae.

- Each setal has thousands of spatulae.

Each spatulae is able to adhere (stick) to the molecules of any substance.

- “Van der Waals” forces are the forces that hold each spatulae to the molecules.

Man-made, synthetic “adhesive” modeled from the Gecko

Take a guess ?

Turtles have a heavy shell fused to the ribs and thoracic vertebrae.

Turtles lack teeth but use a sharp beak.

Sea turtles must return to lay eggs onshore

"What is the difference between a turtle, a tortoise and a terrapin?"

A turtle is any reptile that lives in a shell. A tortoise is a turtle that lives on the land but

can enter the water for a drink, to cool off or to escape and evade predators.

A terrapin is a turtle that lives primarily in water, generally leaving only to lay eggs or to bask in the sun.

The carapace (top) and the plastron (bottom) are joined along the sides by a part called the bridge

difficult to tell a male from a female in most turtles, until they are older

The males of all turtles will have a longer, thicker tail, with the cloaca located closer to the tip of the tail, whereas females with have a smaller, thinner tail with the vent closer to the main part of the body.

In some of the more commonly kept turtles (Sliders, some Maps, Painteds, Cooters), males will also have exceptionally long foreclaws; the females having smaller ones.

Males in some species will also display a concave or dented-in plastron.

This is to allow the male to better mount the female when mating. Adult females which have laid a clutch of eggs will have a semi-pliable anal section of the plastron.

The temperature of the egg during incubation determines the sex of a turtle.

The ratio of males to females is 1:1 at the pivotal temperature of 29 C.; higher temperatures favor the formation of females, and lower temperatures favor the formation of males.

Turtle Shell designs

1. Buttresses The flying buttresses of a cathedral strengthen its

walls to support the massive weights of its towering cupolas

In a turtle shell these buttresses are brought inside the arch

In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like structure, on top of a building

2. Pillars: In side necked turtles the pelvis is ridgedly fussed

inside the plaston below and the carapace above. These strong pillars protect the shell from being

crushed

3. Geodesic dome: It is a spherical or partial-spherical

shell structure based on a network of great circles (geodesics) lying on the surface of a sphere.

The geodesics intersect to form triangular elements that have local triangular rigidity and also distribute the stress across the entire structure

Turtles can breathe out of their butts.

Turtles have amazing anaerobic capabilities, which allow them to survive on very little oxygen for prolonged periods of time.

Like most animals/reptiles, they DO have lungs which take in air through the mouth and nose.

But in a few species, there is a pair of sacs, or bursae that are connected to the internal portion of the cloacal opening, a single exit that acts as both the port for sexual reproduction and digestive system elimination.

They can suck water into their cloaca, and into two pockets that come off the chamber.

These pockets are lined with veins, and the turtles can absorb oxygen from the water into their blood.

The Fitzroy River turtle is one of the select few who can stay underwater, inhale water through the cloacal opening, and extract oxygen for its system.

They also can breathe that way on land

                                                 

                                                         

Crocodile: Narrow mouth, protruding teeth These are the only 4 chambered heart reptiles

Alligator: broad snout, conical teeth

Dinosaurs varied in size and behavior; some had a bipedal stance, other quadrapedal.

Dinosaurs were taken on the Ark (Hebrew for Ark = Box) Dinosaurs died out later due to

lack of vegetation, cold, etc.

Dinosaurs and the Bible?Job 40:15 "Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you;He eats grass like an ox.16 See now, his strength is in his hips,And his power is in his stomach muscles.

17 He moves his tail like a cedar tree;