Animalia (vertebrates)

Class Mammalia

ClassAmphibia

ClassAves

Class Reptilia

Phylum Chordata

ClassAgnatha

ClassChondrichthyes

Class Osteichthyes

Class Amphibia• Approximately 3,000 species• Amphibians include frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and legless amphibians.• Ectotherms (cold-blooded)• Metabolic rate and therefore activity level varies with temperature.• Have lungs and gills. • Skin is permeable.• Lay several hundred small, round eggs covered in a gelatinous mass.• There are no amphibians that live strictly in the marine environment.

Class Amphibia

Amphibians comprise a large and diverse class of animals. Usually placed in the

same sentence as reptiles, they are really quite different. The term "amphibia"

means aquatic and terrestrial, as amphibians are just as at home on land as in the

water. Amphibians, although thought to be soft and squishy, do have a mostly-

bone skeleton (the rest being made of cartilage). The skin is almost always moist

and is water permeable. It lacks scales, and can be smooth (frogs) or bumpy

(toads). Amphibians come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors, and some

of the most poisonous vertebrates are amphibians (arrow-point frogs). Unlike

reptiles, amphibians have many different options on how to breathe. Most species

have lungs, so they can breathe through their mouths. They also have gills, either

internal or external, for breathing underwater. Finally, the water-permeable skin

allows oxygen to diffuse through it, so they can "breathe" through their skin and

the lining of their mouths.

Most amphibians are oviparous (egg-laying) and will lay several hundred small,

round eggs covered in a gelatinous mass. Almost always the eggs are laid in

water, either a pond or puddle or pool of water in a leaf. Some species carry the

eggs in their belly, and hatch inside of the mother. Most species have four limbs

with webbed feet, although one order lacks limbs entirely. They all have three-

chambered hearts (mammals have four-chambered hearts). There are separate

sexes, but some species can change gender depending on the circumstances. There

are approximately 3000 species in 3 orders:

      Gymnophiona (caecilians, legless amphibians) 160 sp

      Caudata (previously Urodela — salamanders, newts) 300 sp

      Anura (frogs, toads) 2500 sp

Class Osteichthyes• Approximately 26,000 species• Skeleton is made at least partially of bone.• Most are covered in cycloid (ctenoid) scales.• Have a flap like operculum.• Many have a swim bladder.• The mouth is terminal• Able to breathe without swimming.• At least half of the 26,000 species are marine.

American EelAnguilla rostrata

American EelAnguilla rostrata

Description: Elongated body with a small, pointed head, no pelvic fins, and one long dorsal fin that extends more than half of the body; dorsal fin is continuous with the caudal and anal fin. One small gill slit is found in front of each pectoral fin.

Habitat: Live in fresh or brackish water as adults, usually in larger rivers or lakes, primarily swimming near the bottom in search of food. The species prefers to hunt at night and lives in crevices or other shelter from the light during the day. Often times they bury themselves in the substrate.

Comments: Eaten in Japan and Taiwan and are also eaten live in Europe. All forms of A. rostrata are sought after commercially, to be shipped to places where they are used as food. There is concern for A. rostrata populations in the United States recently because of the over harvesting of young eels.

Range: Spawns in the Atlantic Ocean and ascends streams and rivers in North and South America. Found in Atlantic, Great Lakes, Mississippi, the Gulf Basin, and south to South America. This species is more common near the sea rather than inland streams and lakes (Page & Burr, 1991).

American EelAnguilla rostrata

Common Killie (Mummichog)Fundulus heteroclitus

Female

female

male

Common Killie (Mummichog)Fundulus heteroclitus

Description: Grow to a length of 18 centimeters, the females growing larger than the males. They have flattened heads and the mouth is turned upward, clearly an adaptation to feeding at the surface of the water.

Habitat: Found in Tidal creeks, saltwater marshes, estuaries, and in sheltered shores where tides flow over grasses. This habitat is great for spawning and feeding. This fish is the most hardy and adaptable fish known. It can survive in waters as warm as 34° C for up to 63 minutes before falling victim to heat shock. It can also withstand temperature fluctuations from 6° C to 35° C. It also has a great at tolerance to changes in salinity. The upper limit for salinity is 106 – 120.3 ppt, while the average salinity of sea water is 32-33 ppt. Range: Occur along the Atlantic coast of North America. They extend from the Gulf of St. Lawrence all of the way to the gulf coast of Texas. The waters of Sable Island, southeast of Halifax and Canada. These fish also live inland in tidal creeks and lagoons.

Common Killie (Mummichog)Fundulus heteroclitus

Comments: This fish is dimorphic, meaning that males and females have different physical characteristics. Males are darker in color than females. Males are dark olive green on the dorsal side and lighter yellow on the ventral

side. They also display vertical stripes along their sides. Females are silverish yellow on the ventral side and that color gradually fades to a more distinct yellow on the dorsal side. They also lack the stripes that male F. heteroclitus display. All F.heteroclitus have a single soft dorsal fin and their pelvic fins are located close to the rear fin. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center, 2001)

Summer Flounder (Fluke)Paralichthyes dentatus

Summer Flounder (Fluke)Paralichthyes dentatus

Summer Flounder (Fluke)Paralichthyes dentatus

Description: The summer flounder is a left-handed fish. It is the most variable in color of all our local species and the one which adapts its pattern the most closely to that of the ground on which it lies. It is white below and of some shade of brown, gray, or drab above, like most flatfishes. Summer flounders ordinarily grow to a maximum weight of 15 pounds or so, and to a length of 3 feet, or a little more, though one of about 30 pounds has been reported as taken off Fishers Island about 1915.

Habitat: Fluke spend most of their lives on bottom, or close to it, as other flatfishes do. They prefer sandy bottom, or mud, where they are often seen. And it takes one only an instant to bury itself to the eyes in the sand. Fluke often lurk in grasses, or among the piling of docks; but they are swift swimmers when disturbed.

Range: Continental waters of the eastern United States, from Maine to South Carolina, possibly to Florida.

Comments: This is one of the best tasting of our flatfishes. They usually bringing a higher price than any other. This is also the gamest of our flatfishes, biting freely on almost any bait, even taking artificial lures at times, while large ones put up a strong resistance when hooked.

WeakfishCynoscion regalis

WeakfishCynoscion regalis

Description: Grow to a length of about 1 meter. Weakfish have 11 or 12 soft rays, 11 to 13 gill rakers, and the lateral line scales number from 76 to 86. In adult weakfish the coloration of the dorsal scales are dark green fading into a silver underside. The coloration of the sides can range from spots of purple, green, blue, and gold that are generally found on the top half of the fish. The fins are yellowish in color.

Habitat: Weakfish are found along the Atlantic coast. They migrate seasonally in the relatively shallow coastal water of sandy mud bottoms, and then to the brackish water of river estuaries for reproduction and feeding in the summer, finally returning offshore in the fall (Virginia Tech, 1996).

Range: This species of fish is indigenous to the Alantic coast of the United States, and ranges from Cape Cod to the shores of Florida (Shepherd, 1997).

Comments: Weakfish are important food and gamefish for people along the Atlantic coast. They are also a sport fish and recreational game fish. Weakfish have their common name because their jaws tear when caught with hooks. They are one of the best known fish in the Croakers family, scientific name Scianidae (Zim, 1955).

Northern Sea RobinPrionotus carolinus

Northern Sea RobinPrionotus carolinus

Northern Sea RobinPrionotus carolinus

Description: Grow to an average of 17 inches long. The top portion of a Northern searobin is reddish or grayish in color and the bottom portion of the fish is pale. Its head is large with several ridges and spines. As they grow, some of the ridges and spines start to disappear. They have a black spot between their 4th and 5th spines on the first dorsal fin.

Habitat:. The northern searobin usually stays close to the bottom because they prefer the sandy bottoms of the waterbeds. However, at times they are found close to the surface.

Range: The northern searobin can be found from within the width of the continental shelf from New York to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. (Dalberg 1975; Hoese 1977; Conservation 1996)

Comments: Northern searobins are good fighters and are considered good food source like kingfish or whiting. However, they are considered a nuisance because of the spiny structures, so few of them are eaten. Northern searobins are considered trash fish and are often caught only by accident. (Conservation 1996)