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See also:ICHTHYOLOGY (from Gr. LxObs, See also:fish, and Xoyos, See also:doctrine or See also:treatise) , the See also:branch of See also:zoology which treats of the See also:internal and See also:external structure of fishes, their mode of See also:life, and their See also:distribution in space and See also:time . According to the views now generally adopted, all those vertebrate animals are referred to the class of fishes which combine the following characteristics: they live in See also:water, and by means of gills or branchiae breathe See also:air dissolved in water; the See also:heart consists of a single ventricle and single See also:atrium; the limbs, if See also:present, are modified into fins, supplemented by unpaired median fins; and the skin is either naked or covered with scales or with osseous plates or bucklers . With few exceptions fishes are oviparous . There are, however, not a few members of this class which show a modification of one or more of these characteristics, and which, nevertheless, cannot be separated from it . I . See also:HISTORY AND LITERATURE DOWN TO 1880 The commencement of the history of See also:ichthyology coincides with that of zoology generally . See also:Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) had a perfect knowledge of the See also:general structure of fishes, which he clearly discriminates both from the aquatic animals with lungs and mammae, i.e . Cetaceans, and from the various See also:groups of aquatic invertebrates . According to him: " the See also:special characteristics of the true fishes consist in the branchiae and fins, the See also:majority having four fins, but those of an elongate See also:form, as the eels, having two only . Some, as the See also:Muraena, lack the fins altogether . The rays swim with their whole See also:body, which is spread out . The branchiae are sometimes furnished with an operculum, sometimes they are without one, as in the cartilaginous fishes . . . . No See also:fish has hairs or feathers; most are covered with scales, but some have only a rough or a smooth skin . The See also:tongue is hard, often toothed, and sometimes so much adherent that it seems to be wanting . The eyes have no lids, nor are any ears or nostrils visible, for what takes the See also:place of nostrils is a See also:blind cavity; nevertheless they have the senses of tasting, smelling and See also:hearing . All have See also:blood . All scaly fishes are oviparous, but the cartilaginous fishes (with the exception of the See also:sea-See also:devil, which Aristotle places along with them) are viviparous . All have a heart, See also:liver and See also:gall-See also:bladder; but kidneys and urinary bladder are absent . They vary much in the structure of their intestines: for, whilst the See also:mullet has ' a fleshy See also:stomach like a See also:bird, others have no stomachic See also:dilatation . Pyloric caeca are See also:close to the stomach, and vary in number; there are even some, like the majority of the cartilaginous fishes, which have none whatever . Two bodies are situated along the spine, which have the See also:function of testicles; they open towards the vent, and are much enlarged in the spawning See also:season . The scales become harder with See also:age . Not being provided with lungs, fishes have no See also:voice, but several can emit grunting sounds . They See also:sleep like other animals . In most cases the See also:females exceed the See also:males in See also:size; and in the rays and sharks the male is distinguished by an appendage on each See also:side of the vent." Aristotle's See also:information on the habits of fishes, their migrations, See also:node and time of See also:propagation, and economic uses is, so far as it has been tested, surprisingly correct . Unfortunately, we too often lack the means of recognizing the See also:species of which he gives a description . His ideas of specific distinction were as vague as those of the fishermen whose nomenclature he adopted; it never occurred to him that See also:vernacular names are subject to See also:change, or maybe entirely lost in course of time, and the difficulty of identifying his species is further increased by the circumstance that sometimes several popular names are applied by him to the same fish, or different stages of growth are designated by distinct names . The number of fishes known to Aristotle seems to have been about one See also:hundred and fifteen, all of which are inhabitants of the See also:Aegean Sea . That one See also:man should have laid so sure a basis for future progress in zoology is less surprising than that for about eighteen centuries a See also:science which seemed to offer particular attractions to men gifted with See also:power of observation was no further advanced . Yet such is the See also:case . Aristotle's successors remained satisfied to be his copiers or commentators, and to collect fabulous stories or vague notions . With few exceptions (such as See also:Ausonius, who wrote a small poem, in which he describes from his own observations the fishes of the Moselle) authors abstained from See also:original See also:research; and it was not until about the See also:middle of the 16th See also:century that ichthyology made a new step in advance by the See also:appearance of See also:Belon, Rondelet and Salviani, who almost simultaneously published their See also:great See also:works, by which the See also:idea of species was established . P . Belon travelled in the countries bordering on the eastern See also:part of the Mediterranean in the years 1547–1550; he collected Belon . See also:rich stores of See also:positive knowledge, which he embodied in several works . The one most important for the progress of ichthyology is that entitled De aquatilibus libri duo (See also:Paris, 1JJ3) . Belon knew about one hundred and ten fishes, of which he gives See also:rude but generally recognizable figures . Although Belon rarely gives See also:definitions of the terms used by him, it is not generally very difficult to ascertain the limits which he intended to assign to each See also:division of aquatic animals . He very properly divides them into such as are provided with blood and those without it—two divisions corresponding in See also:modern See also:language to vertebrate and invertebrate aquatic animals . The former are classified by him according to size, the further sub-divisions being based on the structure of the See also:skeleton, mode of propagation, number of limbs, form of the body and See also:physical See also:character of the See also:habitat . The See also:work of the See also:Roman ichthyologist H . Salviani (1514–1572), bears See also:evidence of the high social position which the author Sealant. held as physician to three popes . Its See also:title is Aquatilium animalium historia (See also:Rome, 1554–1557, fol.) . It treats exclusively of the fishes of See also:Italy . Ninety-two species are figured on seventy-six plates, which, as regards See also:artistic See also:execution, are masterpieces of that See also:period, although those specific characteristics which nowadays constitute the value of a zoological See also:drawing were overlooked by the author or artist . No See also:attempt is made at a natural See also:classification, but the allied forms are generally placed in close proximity . The descriptions are equal to those given by Belon, entering much into the details of the See also:economy and uses of the several species, and were evidently composed with the view of See also:collecting in a readable form all that might prove of See also:interest to the class of society in which the author moved . Salviani's work is of a high See also:order . It could not fail to render ichthyology popular in the See also:country to the See also:fauna of which it was devoted, but it was not fitted to advance ichthyology as a science generally; in this respect Salviani is not to he compared with Rondelet or Belon . G . Rondelet (1507–1557) had the great See also:advantage over Belon of having received a medical See also:education at Paris, and especially Rondelet. of having gone through a See also:complete.course of instruction in See also:anatomy as a See also:pupil cf Guentherus of See also:Andernach . This is conspicuous throughout his works—Libri de piscibus ntarinis (See also:Lyons, 1554); and Universac aqualilium historiae pars allera (Lyons, 1555) . Nevertheless they cannot be regarded as more than considerably enlarged See also:editions of Belon's work . For, although he worked independently of the latter, the See also:system adopted by him is characterized by the same See also:absence of the true principles of classification . His work is almost entirely limited to See also:European and chiefly to Mediterranean forms, and comprises no fewer than one hundred and ninety-seven marine and See also:forty-seven fresh-water fishes . His descriptions are more complete and his figures much more accurate than those of Belon; and the specific See also:account is preceded by See also:introductory chapters, in which he treats in a general manner of the distinctions, the external and internal parts, and the economy of fishes . Like Belon, he had no conception of the various categories of classification—confounding throughout his work the terms " genus " and " species," but he had an intuitive notion of what his successors called a " species," and his See also:principal See also:object was to give as much information as possible regarding such species . For nearly a century the works of Belon and Rondelet continued to be the See also:standard works on ichthyology; but the science did not remain stationary during that period . The See also:attention of naturalists was now directed to the fauna of See also:foreign countries, especially of the See also:Spanish and Dutch possessions in the New See also:World; and in See also:Europe the See also:establishment of anatomical See also:schools and See also:academies led to careful investigation of the internal anatomy of the most remarkable European forms . Limited as these efforts were as to their See also:scope, they were sufficiently numerous to enlarge the views of naturalists, and to destroy that fatal dependence on preceding authorities which had kept in bonds even Rondelet and Belon . The most noteworthy of those engaged in these inquiries in tropical countries were W . See also:Piso and G . Marcgrave, who accompanied as physicians the Dutch See also:governor, See also:Count See also:Maurice of See also:Nassau, to See also:Brazil (1630–1644) . Of the men who See also:left records of their anatomical researches, we may mention See also:Borelli (1608–1679), who wrote a work De motu animalium (Rome, 168o, 4t0), in which he explained the mechanism of See also:swimming and the function of the air-bladder; M . See also:Malpighi (1628–1694), who examined the optic See also:nerve of the See also:sword-fish; the celebrated J . See also:Swammerdam (1637–168o), who described the intestines of numerous fishes; and J . Duverney (1648–1730), who investigated in detail the See also:organs of respiration . A new era in the history of ichthyology commences with See also:Ray, See also:Willughby and See also:Artedi, who were the first to recognize the true principles by which the natural See also:affinities of animals should be determined . Their labours stand in so intimate a connexion with each other that they represent but one great step in the progress of this science . J . Ray (1628–1705) was the friend and See also:guide of F . Willughby (1635–1672) . They found that a thorough reform in the method of treating the See also:vegetable and See also:animal kingdoms had become necessary; that the only way of bringing wi and order into the existing See also:chaos was by arranging the lugbby. various forms according to their structure . They therefore substituted facts for See also:speculation, and one of the first results of this change, perhaps the most important, was that, having recognized "species" as such, they defined the See also:term and fixed it as the starting-point of all See also:sound zoological knowledge . Although they had divided their work so that Ray attended to the See also:plants principally, and Willughby to the animals, the Historia piscium (Oxf., 1686), which bears Willughby's name on the title-See also:page and was edited by Ray, is their See also:joint See also:production . A great part of the observations contained in it were collected during the journeys they made together in Great See also:Britain and in the various countries of Europe . By the See also:definition of fishes as animals with blood, breathing by gills, provided with a single ventricle of the heart, and either covered with scales or naked, the Cetaceans are excluded . The fishes proper are arranged primarily according to the cartilaginous or the osseous nature of the skeleton, and then subdivided according to the general form of the body, the presence or the absence of ventral fins, the soft or the vinous structure of the dorsal rays, the number of dorsal fins, &c . No fewer than four hundred and twenty species arc thus arranged and described, of which about one hundred and eighty were known to the authors from See also:personal examination—a comparatively small proportion, but descriptions and figures still formed in great measure the substitute for our modern collections and museums . With the increasing See also:accumulation of forms, the want of a fixed nomenclature had become more and more See also:felt . See also:Peter Artedi ('705-1734) would have been a great ichthyologist if Ray or Willughby had not preceded him . But he was fully Arteat conscious of the fact that both had prepared the way for him, and therefore he did not fail to reap every possible advantage from their labours . His work, edited by See also:Linnaeus, is divided as follows: (x) In the Bibliotheca ichthyologica Artedi gives a very complete See also:list of all preceding authors. who had writtenon fishes, with a See also:critical See also:analysis of their works . (2) The Philosophia ichthyologica is devoted to a description of the external and internal parts of fishes; Artedi fixes a precise terminology for all the various modifications of the organs, distinguishing between those characters which determine a genus and such as indicate a species or merely a variety; in fact he establishes the method and principles which subsequently have guided every systematic ichthyologist . (3) The Genera pescsum contains well-defined diagnoses of forty-five genera, for which he has fixed an unchangeable nomenclature . (4) In the Species pisoium descriptions of seventy-two species, examined by himself, are_ given—descriptions which even now are See also:models of exactitude and method . (5) Finally, in the Synonymia psscium references to all previous authors are arranged for every species, very much in the manner which is adopted'in the systematic works of the present See also:day . Artedi has been justly called the See also:father of ichthyology . So admirable was his treatment of 'the subject, that even Linnaeus Linnaeus. could only modify and add to it . Indeed, so far as ichthyology is concerned, Linnaeus has scarcely done anything beyond applying binominal terms to the species properly described and classified by Artedi . His classification of the genera appears in the 12th edition of the Systema thus: A, See also:Amphibia nantia.—Spiraculis compositis.-Petromyzon, Raia, Squalus, See also:Chimaera . Spiraculis solitaries: Lophius, Acipenser, Cyclopterus, Baiistes, Ostracion, Tetrodon, Diodon, Centriscus, Syngnathus . See also:Pegasus . B . See also:Pisces a¢odes.-Muraena, Gymnotus, Trichiurus, Anarrhichas, Ammodytes, Ophidium, Stromateus, Xiphias .
C
.
Pisces jugulares.—Callionymus, Uranoscopus, Trachinus, Gadus, Blennius
.
D
.
Pisces taoracici.-Cepola, Echeneis, Coryphaena, See also:Gobi's, Cottus, Scorpaena,See also:Zeus, Pleuronectes, Chaetodon, Spares, Labials, Sciaena, Perca, Gasterosteus, Scomber, Mullus, Trigla
.
E
..
Pisces abdominales.—Cobitis, Amia, See also:Silures, Teuthis, Lori See also:caria, Salmo, Fistularia, Esox, Elops, See also:Argentina, Atherina, Mugil, Mormyrus, Exocoetus, Polynemus, Clupea, Cyprinus
.
Two, contemporaries of Linnaeus, L
.
T
.
Gronow and J
.
T
.
See also:Klein, attempted a systematic arrangement of fishes
.
The works of Artedi and Linnaeus led See also:town activity of research,
especially in Scandinavia, See also: Whilst some of the pupils and followers of Linnaeus devoted themselves to the examination and study of the fauna of their native countries,others proceeded on voyages of See also:discovery to foreign and distant lands . Of these latter the following may be especially mentioned: O . See also:Fabricius worked out the fauna of See also:Greenland; Peter Kalm collected in See also:North See also:America, . F . See also:Hasselquist in See also:Egypt and See also:Palestine, M . T . Brunnich in the Mediterranean, Osbeck in See also:Java and See also:China, K . P . See also:Thunberg in See also:Japan; See also:Forskal examined and described the fishes of the Red Sea; G . W . Steller, P . S .
See also:Pallas, S
.
G
.
See also:Gmelin, and A
.
J
.
Guldenstadt traversed nearly the whole of the See also:Russian See also:empire in Europe and See also:Asia
.
Others attached themselves as naturalists to celebrated navigators, such as the two Forsters (father and son) and Solander, who accompanied See also:Cook; P
.
Commerson, who travelled with See also:Bougainville; and See also:Pierre Sonnerat
.
Of those who studied the fishes of their native countries, the most celebrated were See also:Pennant (Great Britain), O
.
F
.
See also: The See also:mass of materials brought together was so great that, not See also:long after the See also:death of Linnaeus, the See also:necessity made itself felt for collecting them in a compendious form . Several compilers undertook this task; they embodied the See also:recent discoveries in new editions of the classical works of Artedi and Linnaeus, but,they only succeeded in burying those See also:noble monuments under a chaotic mass of rubbish . For ichthyology it was fortunate that two men at least, See also:Bloch and Lacepede, made it a subject of prolonged original research . See also:Mark Eliezer Bloch (1723-1799), a physician of See also:Berlin, had reached the age of fifty-six when he began to write on ichthyological subjects . His work consists of two divisions:- Btoch (,1) Oconomische Naturgeschichte der Fische See also:Deutsch- lends . (Berl., 1782-1784); (2) Naturgeschichte der ausltindischen Fische (Berl., 1785-1795) . The first division, which is devoted to a description of the fishes of Germany, is entirely original . His descriptions as well as figures were made from nature, and are, with few exceptions, still serviceable; indeed many continue to be the best existing in literature . Bloch was less fortunate, and is much less trustworthy, in his natural history of foreign fishes . For many of the species he had to See also:trust to more or less incorrect drawings and descriptions by travellers; frequently, also, he was deceivedas to the origin of specimens which he See also:purchased . Hence his accounts contain numerous errors, which it would have been difficult to correct had not nearly the whole of the materials on which his work is based been preserved in the collections at Berlin . After the completion of his great work Bloch prepared a general system of fishes, in which he arranged not only, those previously described, but also those with which he had afterwards become acquainted . The work was ably edited and published after Bloch's death by a; philologist, J . G . See also:Schneider, under the title M . E . Blochii Systema ichthyologiae . iconibus ex. illustratum (Berl., i8ox) . The number of species enumerated amounts to 1519 . The system is based upon the number of the fins, the various orders being termed Hendecapterygii, Decapterygii, &c . An artificial method like this led to the most unnatural combinations and distinctions . Bloch's Naturgeschichte remained for many years the standard work . But as regards originality of thought Bloch was far surpassed by his contemporary, B . G . E. de Lacepede, See also:born at See also:Agen,in France, in 1756, who became See also:professor at the museum of natural history in Paris, where he died in 1825 .
Lacepede had to contend with great difficulties in the preparations of his Histoire See also:des poissons (Paris, 1798-1803, 5 vols.), which was written during the most disturbed period Lacepede. of the See also:French Revolution
.
A great part of it was
composed whilst the author was separated from collections and books, and had to rely on his notes and See also:manuscripts only
.
Even the works of Bloch and other contemporaneous authors remained unknown or inaccessible to him for a long time
.
His work, therefore, abounds in the See also:kind of errors into which a compiler is liable to fall
.
Thus the See also:influence of Lacepede on the progress of ichthyology was vastly less than that of his See also:fellow-labourer; and the labour laid on his successors in correcting numerous errors probably outweighed the assistance which they derived from his work
.
The work of the principal students of ichthyology in the period between Ray and Lacepede was chiefly systematizing and describing; but the internal organization of fishes also received attention from more than one great anatomist
.
Albrecht von See also:Haller, Peter See also:Camper and See also:
See also:Bancroft, John See also:Walsh, and still more exactly by J
.
Hunter
.
The See also:mystery of the propagation of the See also:eel called forth a large number of essays, and even the artificial propagation of Sal monidae was known and practised by J
.
G
.
Gleditsch(1.764)
.
Bloch and Lacepede's works were almost immediately succeeded by the labours of See also:Cuvier, but his See also:early publications were tentative, preliminary and fragmentary, so that some little time elapsed before the spirit infused into ichthyology by this great anatomist could exercise its influence on all the workers in this See also: G . Cuvier (1769-1832) devoted himself to the study of fishes with particular predilection . The investigation of their anatomy, Gtvter. and especially of their skeleton, was continued until he had succeeded in completing so perfect a See also:frame-work of the system of the whole class that his immediate successors required only to fill up those details for which their See also:master had had no leisure . He ascertained the natural affinities of the See also:infinite variety of farms, and accurately defined the divisions, orders, families and genera of the class, as they appear in the various editions of the Regne Animal . His See also:industry equalled his See also:genius; he formed connections with almost every accessible part of the globe; and for many years the museum of the Jardin des Plantes was- the centre where all ichthyological treasures were deposited . Thus Cuvier brought together a collection which, as it contains all the materials on which his labours were based, must still be considered as the most important . Soon after the See also:year r82o, Cuvier, assisted vatea_ by one of his pupils, A . See also:Valenciennes, commenced clennes. his great work on fishes, Historic naturelle des Poissons, of which the first See also:volume appeared in 1828 . After Cuvier's death in 1832 the work was left entirely in the hands of Valenciennes, whose See also:energy and interest gradually slackened, rising to their former See also:pitch in some parts only, as, for instance, in the See also:treatise, on the See also:herring . He left the work unfinished with the twenty-second volume (1848), which treats of the Salmonoids . Yet, incomplete as it is, it is indispensable to the student . The system finally adopted by Cuvier is the following: A . POISSONS OSSEUX . I . A BRANCHIES EN PEIGNES OU EN LAMES . I . A Mdchoire Superieure Libre . a . Acanthopteryglens . Percoides . Sparoides . Branchies labyrinthiques . Polynemes . Chetodonoides . Lophioides . Mulles . Scomberoides . Gobioides . Joues cuirassees Muges . Labroides . Scienoides . b . Malacopterygiens . Abdominaux . Subbrachiens . A podes . Cyprinoides . Gadoides . Murenoides . Siluroides . Pleuronectes . Salmonoides . Discoboles . Clupeoides . Lucioides . 2 . A Mdchoire, Superieure Fixee . Selerodermes . Gymnodontes . II . A BRANCHIES EN FORME DE HOUPPES . Lophobranches . B . CARTILAGINEUX OU CHONDROPTERYGIENS . Sturioniens . Plagiostomes . Cyclostomes . We have only to compare this system with that of Linnaeus if we wish to measure the gigantic stride made by ichthyology during the intervening period of seventy years . The various characters employed for classification have been examined throughout the whole class, and their relative importance has been duly weighed and understood . The important See also:category of " See also:family " appears now in Cuvier's system fully established as intermediate between genus and order . Important changes in Cuvier's system have been made and proposed by his successors, but in the See also:main it is still that of the present day . Cuvier had extended his researches beyond the living forms, into the field of palaeontology; he was the first to observe the close resemblance of the scales of the fossil Palaeoniscus to thoseof the living Polypterus and Lepidosteus, the prolongation and identity of structure of the upper caudal See also:lobe in Palaeoniscus and the sturgeons, the presence of See also:peculiar " fulcra " on the anterior margin of the dorsal fin in Palaeoniscus and Lepidosteus, and inferred from these facts that the fossil genus was allied either to the sturgeons or to Lepidosteus . But it did not occur to him that there was a close relationship between those recent fishes . Lepidosteus and, with it, the fossil genus remained in. his system a member of the order of.Malacopterygii abdominales . It was left to L . See also:Agassiz (1807-1873) to point out the importance of the structure of the scales as a characteristic, and to open a path towards the knowledge of a whole new subclass Agassiz. of fishes, the Ganoidei . Impressed with the fact that the peculiar scales of Polypterus and Lepidosteus are See also:common to all fossil osseous fishes down to the See also:Chalk, he takes the structure of the scales generally as the See also:base for an ichthyological system, and distinguishes four orders: 1 . Plaeoids.—Without scales proper, but with scales of See also:enamel, sometimes large, sometimes small, and reduced to See also:mere points (Rays, Sharks and Cyclostomi,,with the fossil Hybodontes) . 2 . Ganoids . With angular bony scales, covered with a thick stratum of enamel: to this order belong the fossil Lepidoides, Sauroides, Pycnodontes and Coelacanthi; the recent Polypterus, Lepidosteus, Sclerodermi, Gymnodontes, Lophobranches and Siluraides; also the Sturgeons . 3 . Ctenoids.—With rough scales, which have their See also:free margins denticulated: Chaetodontidae, Pleuronectidae, Percidae, Poly-acanthi, Sciaenidae, Sparidae, Scorpaenidae, Aulostomi . 4 . Cycloids . —With smooth scales, the See also:hind margin of which lacks denticulation: Labridae, Mugilidae, Scombridae, Gadoidei, Gobiidae, Muraenidae, Lucioidei, Salmonidae, Clupeidae, Cyprinidae . If Agassiz had had an opportunity of acquiring a more extensive and intimate knowledge of existing fishes before his energies were absorbed in the study of fossil remains, he would doubtless have recognized the artificial character of his classification . The distinctions between See also:cycloid and ctenoid scales, between placoid and ganoid fishes, are vague, and can hardly be maintained . So far as the living and See also:post-Cretacean forms are concerned, he abandoned the vantage-ground gained by Cuvier; and therefore his system could never supersede that of his predecessor, and finally shared the See also:fate of every classification based on the modifications of one See also:organ only . But Agassiz opened an immense new field of research by his study of the infinite variety of fossil forms . In his principal work, Recherches sur See also:les poissons fossiles, See also:Neuchatel, 1833-1843, 4to, See also:atlas in fol., he placed them before the world arranged in a methodical manner, with excellent descriptions and illustrations . His power of discernment and penetration in determining even the most fragmentary remains is astonishing; and, if his order of Ganoids is an assemblage of forms very different from what is now understood by that term, he was the first who recognized that such an order of fishes exists . The discoverer of the Ganoidei was succeeded by their explorer Johannes Muller (18or-i858) . In his classical memoir Ober den Bau and See also:die Grenzen der Ganoiden (Berl., 1846) he showed that the Ganoids differ from all the other osseous fishes, and agree with the Plagiostomes, in the structure of the heart . By this See also:primary character, all heterogeneous elements, as Siluroids, Osteoglossidae, &c., were eliminated from the order as understood. by Agassiz . On the other See also:hand, he did not recognize the See also:affinity of Lepidosiren to the Ganoids, but established for it a distinct subclass, Dipnoi, which he placed at the opposite end of the system . By his researches into the anatomy of the lampreys and See also:Amphioxus, their typical distinctness from other caftilaginous fishes was proved; they became the types of two other subclasses, Cyclostomi and Leptocardii . Muller proposed several other modifications of the Cuvierian system; and, although all cannot be maintained as the most natural arrangements, yet his researches have given us a much more complete knowledge of the organization of the 'teleostean fishes, and later inquiries have shown that, on the whole, the combinations proposed by him' require only some further modification and another definition to render them perfectly natural . The discovery (in the year 1871) of a living representative of a genus hitherto believed to be long See also:extinct, Ceratodus, threw a new See also:light on the affinities of fishes . The writer of the present See also:article, who had the See also:good See also:fortune to examine this fish, was enabled to show that, on the one hand, it was a form most closely allied to Lepidosiren, and, on the other, that it could not be separated from the Ganoid fishes, and therefore that Lepidosiren also was a Ganoid,—a relation already indicated by See also:Huxley in a previous See also:paper on " Devonian Fishes." Having followed the development of the ichthyological system down to this period, we now enumerate the most important contributions to ichthyology which appeared contemporaneously with or subsequently to, the publication of the great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes . For the See also:sake of convenience we may arrange these works under two heads . I . VOYAGES, CONTAINING GENERAL ACCOUNTS OF ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS A . French.—I . Voyage autour du monde snr lei corvettes de S . M . 1' Uranie et la Physicienne, sous k cornmandement de M . See also:Freycinet, Zoologie—Poissons," See also:par Quoy et Gaimard (Paris,, 1824) . 2 . Voyage de la Coquille, " Zoologie," par See also:Lesson (Paris, 1826-183o) . 3 . Voyage de l'See also:Astrolabe, sous le commandment de M . J . See also:Dumont d' Urville, " Poissons," par Quoy et Gaimard (Paris, 1834) . 4 . Voyage au See also:Pole Sud par M . J . Dumont d' Urville, " Poissons,'' par Hombron et Jacquinot (Paris, 1853-1854) . B . See also:English.—I . Voyage of H.M.S . See also:Sulphur, " Fishes," by J . See also:Richardson (Lond., 1844-1845) . 2 . Voyage of H.M.SS . See also:Erebus and Terror, " Fishes," by J . Richardson (Lond., 1846) . 3 . Voyage of H.M.S . Beagle, " Fishes, by L . See also:Jenyns (Lond., 1842) . C . See also:German.—r . Reise der osterreichischen ' F'regatte See also:Novara, " Fische," von R . Kner (See also:Vienna, 1865) . II . FAUNAE A . Great Britain.—1 . R . See also:Parnell, The Natural History of the Fishes of the See also:Firth of Forth (Edin.,, 18338) . 2 . W . See also:Yarrell, 'A History of British Fishes (3rd ed., 'Lond., 1859) . 3 . J . See also:Couch, History of the Fishes of the British Islands (Lond., 1862--1865) . B . Denmark and Scandinavia.—I . H . Kroyer, Danmark's See also:Fiske (See also:Copenhagen, 1838-1853) . 2 . S . See also:Nilsson, Skandinavisk Fauna, vol. iv . " Fiskarna " (See also:Lund, 1855) . 3 . See also:Fries och Ekstroin, Skandinaviens Fiskar (Stockh., 1836) . C . See also:Russia.—i . Nordmann, " Ichthyologie pontique," in Demidoff's Voyage dans la Russie meridionale, tome iii . (Paris, 1840) . D . Germany—i . Heckel and Kner, Die Susswasserfische der Osterreichischen Monarchie (Leipz., t858) . " 2 . C.' T . E . See also:Siebold, Die Siisswasserfische von Mitteleuropa (Leipz., 1863).' E . Italy and Mediterranean.—r . See also:Bonaparte, Iconografia della fauna italica, tom iii., " Pesci " (Rome, 1832-1841) . 2 . See also:Costa, Fauna del regno di Napoli, " Pesci " (See also:Naples, about 185o) . F . France.—I . E . See also:Blanchard, Les Poissons des eaux douces de la France (Paris, 1866) . G . Spanish See also:Peninsula.—The fresh-water fish fauna of Spain and See also:Portugal was almost unknown, until F . Steindachner paid some visits to those countries for the purpose of exploring the principal See also:rivers . His discoveries are described in several papers in the Sitzungsberichte der Akademie zu Wien . B. du See also:Bocage and F. de B . See also:Cappello made contributions to our knowledge of the marine fishes on the coast of Portugal (Jorn . Scienc . Acad . Lisb.) . H . North America.—I . J . Richardson, Fauna Bareali-Americana, part iii., " Fishes " (Lon 1836) . 'The species described in this work are nearly all from the British possessions in the north . 2 . Dekay, Zoology of New York, part iv., Fishes " (New York, 1842) . 3 . Reports of the U.S . See also:Comm. of Fish and See also:Fisheries (5 vols., Washing-ton, 1873-1879) and Reports and special publications of the U.S . See also:Bureau of Fisheries contain valuable information . Numerous descriptions of North See also:American See also:freshwater fishes have been published in the reports of the various U.S . See also:Government expeditions, and in North American scientific See also:journals, by D . H . Storer, S . F . See also:Baird, C . See also:Girard, W .
O
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Ayres, E
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D
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See also:Cope, D
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S
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See also:Jordan, G
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See also: E . Ruppell, Atlas zu der Reise See also:im nordlichen Afrika (Frankf., 1828) . 2 . E . Ruppell, Neue Wirbelthiete, " Fische (Frankf., 1837) . 3 . R . L . See also:Playfair and A . See also:Gunther, The Fishes of See also:Zanzibar (Lond., 1876) . 4 . C . B . Klunzinger, Synopsis der Fische des Rothen Meers (Vienna, 187o-1871) . 5 . F . Day, The Fishes of See also:India (Lond., 1865, 4to) contains an account of the fresh-water and marine species . 6 . A . Gunther, Die Fische der Sildsee (See also:Hamburg, 4to), from 1873 (in progress) . 7 . Unsurpassed in activity, as regards the exploration of the fish fauna of the East Indian See also:archipelago, is P . Bleeker (1819-1878), a surgeon in the service of the Dutch East Indian Government, who, from the year 1840, for nearly See also:thirty years, amassed immense collections of the fishes of the various islands, and described them in extremely numerous papers, published chieflyin the journals of the Batavian Society . Soon after his return to Europe (186o) Bleeker commenced to collect the final results of his labours in a See also:grand work, illustrated by coloured plates, Atlas ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Neerlandaises (Amsterd., fol., 1862), the publication of which was interrupted by the author's death in 1878 . K . See also:Africa.—i . A . Gunther, " The Fishes of the See also:Nile," in See also:Petherick's Travels in Central Africa (Lond., 1869) . 2 . W . See also:Peters, Naturwissenschaftliche Reise stitch Mossambique, iv., " Flussfische " (Berl., 1868, 4t0) . L . See also:West Indies and See also:South America.--I . L . Agassiz, Selecta genera et species piscium, quae in itinere per Brasiliam collegit J . B. de Spix (See also:Munich, 1829, fol.) . 2 . F. de See also:Castelnau, Animaux nouveaux ou rares, recueillis See also:pendant l'expcdition clans les parties centrales de l'Amerique du Sud, " Poissons " (Paris, 1855) . 3 . L . Vaillant and F . Bocourt, See also:Mission scientifique an Mexique et dons l'Amerique centrale, " Poissons " (Paris, 1874) . 4 . F . Poey, the celebrated naturalist of See also:Havana, devoted many years of study to the fishes of Cuba . His papers and See also:memoirs are published partly in two See also:periodicals, issued by himself, under the title of Memorias sobre la historia natural de la See also:isla de Cuba (from 1851), and Repertorio fisico-natural de la isla de Cuba (from 1865), partly in North American scientific journals . And, finally, F . Steindachner and A . Gunther have published many contributions, accompanied by excellent figures, to our knowledge of the fishes of Central and South America . M . New See also:Zealand.—i . F . W . See also:Hutton and J . See also:Hector, Fishes of New Zealand (See also:Wellington, 1872) . N . See also:Arctic Regions.--I . C . Laken, " A Revised See also:Catalogue of the Fishes of Greenland," in See also:Manual of the Natural History, See also:Geology and Physics of Greenland (Lond., 1875, 8vo) . 2 . The fishes of Spitzbergen were examined by A . J . Malmgren (1865) . (A . C . G.) H . HISTORY AND LITERATURE FROM 1880 In the systematic account which followed the above See also:chapter in the qth edition of the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica, the following classification, which is the same as that given in the author's Introduction to the Study of Fishes (See also:London, r88o) was adopted by See also:Albert Gunther:- Subclass I . : PALAEICHTHYES . Order I . : Chondropterygii . With two suborders : Plagiostomata and Holocephala . Order II . : Ganoidei . With eight suborders : Placodermi, Acanthodini, Dipnoi, Chondrostei, Polypteroidei, Pycnodontoidei, Lepidosteoidei, Amioidei . Subclass II.: TELEOSTEI . Order I . : Acanthopterygii . With the divisions Perciformes, Beryciformes, Kurtiformes, Polynemiformes, Sciaeniformes, Xiphiiformes, Trichiuriformes, Cotto-Scombriformes, Gobiiformes, Blenniformes, Mugiliformes,Gastrosteiformes, Centrisciformes, Gobiesociformes, Channiformes, Labyrinthibranchii, Lophotiformes, Taeniifornies and Notacanthiformes . Order II . : Acanthopterygii Pharyngognathi . Order III . : Anacanthini . With two divisions Gadoidei and Pleuronectoidei . Order IV . : Physostomi . Order V. i Lophobranchii . Order VI . P ectognathi . Subclass See also:Ill . : See also:CYCLOSTOMATA . Subclass IV . : LEETOC.&itDII . It was an artificial system, in which the most obvious relation-See also:ships of the higher groups were lost sight of, and the results of the already fairly advanced study of the fossil forms to a great extent discarded . This system gave rise to much adverse See also:criticism; as T . H . Huxley forcibly put it in a paper published soon after (1883), opposing the division of the main groups into Palaeichthyes and Teleostei: " Assuredly, if there is any such distinction to be See also:drawn on the basis of our present knowledge among the higher fishes, it is between the Ganoids and the Plagiostomes, and not between the Ganoids and the Teleos--teans "; at the same time expressing his conviction, " first, that there are no two large groups of animals for which the evidence of a See also:direct genetic connexion is better than in the case of the Ganoids and the Teleosteans; and secondly, that the proposal to See also:separate the Elasmobranchii (Chondropterygii of Gunther), Ganoidei and Dipnoi of Muller into a See also:group apart from, and See also:equivalent to, the Teleostei appears to be inconsistent with the plainest relations of these fishes." This See also:verdict has been endorsed by all subsequent workers at the classification of fishes . Gunther's classification would have been vastly improved ICHTHYOLOGY [HISTORY [HISTORY FROM 1880 had he made use of a contribution published as early as 1871, but not referred to by him . As not even a passing allusion is made to it in the previous chapter, we must retrace our steps to make good this striking omission . See also:Edward Drinker Cope (1840—1897) was a worker of great originality and relentless energy, who, in the sixties of the last century, inspired by the See also:doctrine of See also:evolution, was one of the first to apply its principles to the classification of vertebrates . Equally versed in recent and fossil zoology, and endowed with a marvellous See also:gift, or " See also:instinct " for perceiving the relationship of animals, he has done a great See also:deal for the advance of our knowledge of mammals, See also:reptiles and fishes . Although often careless in the working out of details and occasionally a little too bold in his deductions, Cope occupies a high See also:rank among the zoologists of the 19th century, and much of his work has stood the test of time . The following. was Cope's classification, 1871 (Tr . Amer . Philos . See also:Soc. xiv . 449) . Subclass I . Holocephali . „ II . Selachii . „ III . Dipnoi . „ IV . Crossopterygia, with two orders: Haplistia and Cladistia . V . Actinopteri . The latter is subdivided in the following manner: Tribe I . : Chondrostei . Two orders : Selachostomi and Glaniostomi . Tribe II.: Physostomi . Twelve orders: Ginglymodi, Halecomorphi, Nematognathi, Scyphophori, Plectospondyli, Isospondyli, Haplomi, Glanen- cheli, Ichthyocephali, Holostomi, Enchelycephali, Colocephah . Tribe III . : Physoclysti . Ten orders : Opisthomi, Percesoces, Synentognathi, Hemibranchii, Lophobranchii, Pediculati, Heterosomata, Plectognathi, Percomorphi, Pharyngognathi . Alongside with so much that is good in this classification, there are many suggestions which cannot be regarded as improvements on the views of previous workers . Attaching too great an importance to the mode of suspension of the mandible, Cope separated the Holocephali from the Selachii and the Dipnoi from the Crossopterygii, thus obscuring the general agreement which binds these groups to each other, whilst there is an evident want of proportion in the five subclasses . The exclusion from the class Pisces of the Leptocardii, or lancelets, as first advocated by E . See also:Haeckel, was a step in the right direction, whilst that of the Cyclostomes does not seem called for to such an authority as R . H . See also:Traquair, with whom the writer of this See also:review entirely concurs . The group of Crossopterygians, first separated as a family from the other Ganoids by Huxley, constituted a fortunate innovation, and so was its division into two See also:minor groups, by which the existing forms (Polypteroidei) were separated as Cladistia . The divisions of the Actinopteri, which includes all See also:Teleostomes other than the Dipneusti and Crossopterygii also showed, on the whole, a correct appreciation of their relation-ships, the Chondrostei being well separated from the other Ganoids with which they were generally associated . In the groupings of the minor divisions, which Cope termed orders, we had a decided improvement on the Cuvierian-Mullerian classification, the author having utilized many suggestions of his fellow countrymen See also:Theodore Gill, who has done much towards a better understanding of their relationships . In the association of the Characinids with the Cyprinids (Plectospondyli) in the separation of the See also:flat-fishes from the Ganoids, in the approximation of the Lophobranchs to the sticklebacks and of the Plectognaths to the Acanthopterygians, and in many other points, Cope was in advance of his time, and it is to be regretted that his contemporaries did not more readily take up many of his excellent suggestions for the improvement of their systems . In the subsequent period of his very active scientific life, Cope made many alterations to his system, the latest See also:scheme published by him being the following (” Synopsis of the families of See also:Vertebrata,” Amer . Natur., 1889, p . 849):--49) — Class : Agnatha . I . Subclass : OSTRACODERMI . Orders : Arrhina, Diplorrhina . II . Subclass : MARSIPOBRANCHII . Orders : Hyperotreti, Hyperoarti . Class : Pisces . I . Subclass : HOLOCEPHALI . II . Subclass : DIPNOI . IV . Subclass : TELEOSTOMI . (i.) Superorder: Rhipidopterygia . Orders : Rhipidistia, Actinistia . (ii.) Superorder : Crossopterygia . Orders : Placodermi, Haplistia, Taxistia, Cladistia . (iii.) Superorder : Podopterygia (Chondrostei) . (iv.) Superorder : Actinopterygia . Orders : Physostomi, Physoclysti . This classification is that followed, with many emendations, by A . S . See also:Woodward in his See also:epoch-making Catalogue of Fossil Fishes (4 vols., London, 1889—1901), and in his most useful Outlines of Vertebrate Paleontology (See also:Cambridge, 1898), and was adopted by Gunther in the loth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: Class : Agnatha . I . Subclass : CYCLOSTOMI . With three orders : (a) Hyperoartia (Lampreys) ; (b) Hyperotreti (Myxinoids) ; (c) Cycliae (See also:Palaeospondylus) . II . Subclass : OSTRACODERMI . With four orders : (a) Heterostraci (Coelolepidae, Psammosteidae, Drepanaspidae, Pteraspidae); (b) Osteostraci (Cephalaspidae, Ateleaspidae, &c.); (c) Antiarchi (Asterolepidae, Pterichthys, Bothrolepis, &c.) ; (d) Anaspida (Birkeniidae) . Class : Pisces . I . Subclass : ELASMOBRANCHII . With four orders : (a) Pleuropierygii (Cladoselache) ; (b) Ichthyotomi (Pleuracanthidae) ; (c) Acanthodii (Diplacanthidae, and Acanthodidae) ; (d) Selachii (divided from the structure of the vertebral centres into AsterospondyV and Tectospondyli) . II . Subclass : HOLOCEPHALI . With one order : Chimaeroidei . With two orders : (a) Sirenoidei (Lepidosiren, Ceratodus, Uronemidae, Ctenodontidae) ; (b) Arthrodira (Homosteus, Coccosteus, Dinichthys) . IV . Subclass : TELEOSTOMI . A . Order : Crossopterygii . With four suborders: (I) Haplistia (Tarassius); (2) Rhipidistia (Holoptychidae, Rhizodontidae, Osteolepidae) ; (3) Actinistia (Coelacanthidae) ; (4) Cladistia (Polypterus) . B . Order : Actinopterygii . With about twenty suborders: (I) Chondrostei (Palaeoniscidae, Platysomidae, Chondrosteidae, Sturgeons); (2) Protospondyli (Semionotidae, Macrosemiidae, Pycnodontidae, Eugnathidae, Amiidae, Pachycormidae) ; (3) Aetheospondyli (Aspidorhynchidae, Lepidosteidae) ; (4) Isospondyli (Pholidophoridae, Osteoglossidae, Clupeidae, Leptolepidae, &c.); (5) Plectospondyli (Cyprrnidae, Characinidae) ; (6) Nematognathi; (7) Apodes; and the other Teleosteans . There are, however, See also:grave objections to this system, which cannot be said to reflect the present See also:state of our knowledge . In his masterly paper on the evolution of the Dipneusti, L . Dollo has conclusively shown that the importance of the autostyly on which the definition of the Holocephali from the Elasmobranchii or Selachii and of the Dipneusti from the Teleostomi rested, had been exaggerated, and that therefore the position assigned to these two groups in Gunther's classification of 188o still commended itself . Recent work on Palaeospondylui,•.on the See also:Ostracoderms, and on the Arthrodira, throws great doubt on the propriety of the positions given to them in the above classification, and the rank assigned to the main divisions of the Teleostomi do not commend themselves to the writer of the present article, who would See also:divide the fishes into three subclasses:- I . Cyclostomi II . Selachii the characters and contents of which will be found in separate articles; in the present state of uncertainty as to their position, Palaeospondylus and the Ostracodermi are best placed hors See also:cadre and will be dealt with under these names . The three subclasses here adopted correspond exactly with those proposed in Theo . Gill's classification of the recent fishes (" Families and Subfamilies of Fishes," Mem . Nat . Ac . Sci. vi . 1893), except that they are regarded by that authority as classes . The period dealt with in this chapter, ushered in by the publica- much discussed . tion of Gifnther's Introduction to the Study of Fishes, has been one of extraordinary activity in every branch of ichthyology, recent and fossil . A glance at the Zoological See also:Record, published by the Zoological Society of London, will show the ever-increasing number of monographs, morphological papers and systematic contributions, which appear year after year . The number of new genera and species which are being proposed is amazing, hut it is difficult to tell how many of them will simply go to swell the already overburdened synonymy . Perhaps a reasonable estimate of the living species known at the present day would assess their number at about 13,000 . It is much to be regretted that there is not a single general modern systematic work on fishes . The most important See also:treatises, the 7th volume of the Cambridge Natural History, by T . W . See also:Bridge and G . A . Boulenger, and D . S . Jordan's Guide to the Study of Fishes, only profess to give definitions of the families with enumerations of the principal genera . Gunther's Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum therefore remains the only general descriptive treatise, but its last volume See also:dates from 187o, and the work is practically obsolete . A second. edition of it was begun in 1894, but only one volume, by Boulenger, has appeared, and the subject is so vast that it seems doubtful now whether any one will ever have the time and energy to repeat Giinther's achievement . The fish fauna of the different parts of the world will have to be dealt with separately, and it is in this direction that descriptive ichthyology is most likely to progress . North America, the fishes of which were imperfectly known in 188o, now possesses a Descriptive Catalogue in 4 stout volumes, by D . S . Jordan and B . W . Evermann, replacing the synopsis brought out in 1882 by D . S .
Jordan and C
.
H
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See also: See also:Alcock (Investigator), R . Collett (Hirondelle), S . Garman (See also:Albatross) and a general resume up to 1895 was provided in G . B . Goode's and T . H . See also:Bean's Oceanic Ichthyology . More than 60o true bathybial fishes are known from depths of 'Goo fathoms and more, and a great deal of evidence has been accumulated to show the general transition of the See also:surface fauna into the bathybial . A recent departure has been the exploration of the See also:Antarctic fauna . Three general reports, on the results of the See also:Southern See also:Cross, the Belgica and the See also:Swedish South Polar expeditions, had already been published in 1907, and others on the See also:Scotia and Discovery were in preparation . No very striking new types of fishes have been discovered, but the results obtained are sufficient to entirely disprove the theory of bipolarity which some naturalists had advocated . Much has been done towards ascertaining the life-histories of the fishes of economic importance, both in Europe and in North America, and our knowledge of the larval and post-larval forms has made great progress . Wonderful activity has been displayed in the field of palaeontology, and the careful working out of the See also:morphology of the archaic types has led to a better understanding of the general lines of evolution; but it is to be regretted that very little light on the relationships of the living groups of Telcostcans has been thrown by the discoveries of palaeontologists . Among the most remarkable additions made in recent years, the work of R . H . Traquair on the problematic fishes Palaeospondylus, Thelodus, Drepanaspis, Lanarkia, Ateleaspis, Birkenia and Lanasius, ranks foremost; next to it must be placed the researches of A . S . Woodward and Bashford See also:Dean on the See also:primitive See also:shark Cladoselache, and of the same authors, J . S . See also:Newberry, C . R . Eastman, E . W . Claypole and L . Hussakof, on the Arthrodira, a group the affinities of which have been AuTaoRITIEs.—The following selection from the extremely extensive ichthyological literature which has appeared during the period 188o–1906 will supplement the See also:bibliographical See also:notice appended to See also:section I . I . The General Subject: A . Gunther, Introduction to the Study of Fishes (See also:Edinburgh, 1880) ; B . Dean, Fishes Living and Fossil (New York, 1895) ; T . W . Bridge and G . A . Boulenger, " Fishes," Cambridge Natural History, vii . (1904); D . S . Jordan, Guide to the Study of Fishes (2 vols., New York, 1905) .
II
.
Palaeontological: A
.
Fritsch, Fauna der Gaskohle and der Kalksteine der See also:Perm-formation Bohmens (vols. i.-iii., See also:Prague, 1879–1894) ; K
.
A. von See also:Zittel, Handbuch der Paliiontologie, vol. iii
.
(Munich, 1887) ; A
.
See also: Surv. vol. xvi . (1889) ; J . V . Rohon, "Die obersilurischen Fische von Osel, Thyestidae and Tremataspidae," Mem . Ac . See also:Imp . Sc . St-Petersb. xxxviu . (1892); O . Jaekel, Die Selachier von Bolca, ern Beitrag zur Morphogenie der Wirbeltiere (Berlin, 1894) ; B_ Dean, " Contributions to the Morphology of Cladoselache," Journ . Morphol. ix . (1894) ; R . H . Traquair, " The Asterolepidac," Mon . Palaeont . Soc . (1894-1904, in progress); " See also:Report on Fossil Fishes collected by the See also:Geological Survey of See also:Scotland in the See also:Silurian Rocks of the South of Scotland," Trans . See also:Roy Soc . Edin. xxxix . (1899); L . Dollo, " Sur la phylogenie des Dipneustes," See also:Bull . Soc . Belge Geol. vol. ix . (1895); E .
W
.
Claypole, ;' The Ancestry of the Upper Devonian Placoderms of See also:Ohio," Amer
.
Geol. xvii
.
(1896) ; B
.
Dean, " Palaeontological Notes," Mem
.
N.Y
.
Ac. ii
.
(1901) ; A
.
See also: Surv . Kansas, vi . (See also:Topeka, 1901); A . S . Woodward, " Fossil Fishes of the English Chalk," Palaeontogr . Soc . (1902–1903, etc.); R . H . Traquair, " The See also:Lower Devonian Fishes of Gemunden," Roy . Soc . Edin . Trans . 40 (1903) ; W . J. and I . B . J . Sollas, " Account of the Devonian Fish Palaeospondylus," Phil . Trans . 196 (1903); C . T . Regan, " Phylogeny of the Teleostomi," See also:Ann . &' Mag . N.H . (7) 13 (1904); C . R . Eastman, "Fishes of See also:Monte Bolca," Bull . See also:Mus . C.Z . 46 (1904) ; " Structure and Relations of Mylostoma," Op. cit . 2 (1906); 0 . See also:Abel, " Fossile Flugfische," Jahrb . Geol . Reichsanst . 56 (Wien, 1906); L . Hussakof . " Studies on the Arthrodira," Mem . Amer . Mus . N.H. ix . (1906) . III . Faunistic (recent fishes) : (A) EUROPE: E . Bade, Die mitteleuropaischen Silsswasser-Jlsche (2 vols., Berlin, 1901-1902) . GREAT BRITAIN: F . Day, The Fishes of Great Britain and See also:Ireland (2 vols., London, 1880-1884) ; J . T . See also:Cunningham, The Natural History of the Marketable Marine Fishes of the British Islands (London, 1896); W . C . M'Intosh and A . T . Masterman, The Life-Histories of the British Marine See also:Food-Fishes (London, 1897) ; See also:Sir H . See also:Maxwell, British Fresh-water Fish (London, 1904) ; F . G . Aflalo, British See also:Salt-water Fish (London, 1904) . Numerous important researches into the development, life-conditions and distributions, carried out at the Biological Laboratories at See also:Plymouth and St See also:Andrews and during the survey of the fishing grounds of Ireland, have been published by W . L . See also:Calderwood, J . T . Cunningham, E . W . L . See also:Holt, W . C . M'Intosh, J . W . See also:Fulton, W . Garstang and See also:Prince in the Journ . See also:Mar . Biolog . Assoc., The Reports of the See also:Fishery See also:Board of Scotland, Scient . Trans . R . See also:Dublin Soc. and other periodicals . (B) DENMARK AND SCANDINAVIA: W . Lilljeborg, Sveriges och Norges Fiskar (3 vols., See also:Upsala, 1881–1891); F . A . Smith, A History of Scandinavian Fishes by B . Fries, C . U . Ekstrom and C.Sundevall, with Plates by W. von See also:Wright (second edition, revised and completed by F . A . S., See also:Stockholm, 1892) ; A . Stuxberg, Sveriges och Norges Fiskar (Goteborg, 1895) ; C . G . J . Petersen, Report of the Danish Biological Station (Copenhagen, 1802–1900) (See also:annual reports containing much information on fishes of and fishing in the Danish seas) . (C) See also:FINLAND: G . Sundman and A . J . See also:Mela, Finland's Fiskar (See also:Helsingfors, 1883–1891) . (D) GERMANY: - K . See also:Mobius and F . Heincke, " Die Fische der Ostsee," Bericht ComniisJ` . Untersuch. deutsch . Meere (See also:Kiel, 1883); F . Heincke, E . Ehrenbaum and G . See also:Duncker have published their investigations into the life-history and development of the fishes of See also:Heligoland in Wissenschaftl . Meeresuntersuchungen (Kiel and See also:Leipzig, 1894--1899) ; (E) See also:SWITZERLAND: V . Fatio, Faun.e des vertebras de la Suisse: Poissons (2 vols., See also:Geneva and See also:Basel, 1882–189o) . (F) FRANCE: E . See also:Moreau, Histoire naturelle des poissons de la France (3 vols., Paris, 1881) ; Supplement (Paris, 1891) . (G) PYRENEAN PENINSULA: D . See also:Carlos de Braganca, Resultados das investigacoes scientificas feitas a bordo do yacht "Amelia." Pescas maritimas, i. and ii . (See also:Lisbon, 1899–1904) . (H) ITALY AND MEDITERRANEAN: P . See also:DOderlein, Manuale ittiologico del .11editerraneo (See also:Palermo, 1881–1891. not completed; interrupted by the death of the author); E . W . L . Holt, " Recherches sur la See also:reproduction des poissons osseux, principalement dans le golfe de Marseille," Ann . Mus . See also:Mars. v . (See also:Marseilles, 1899) ; (I) WESTERN AND CENTRAL ASIA: L . Lortet, " Poissons et reptiles du See also:lac de Tiberiade," See also:Arch . Mus. d'Hist . Nat . See also:Lyon, iii . (1883); S . Herzenstein, Wissenschaftliche Resultate der von N . M . Przewalski nach Central Asien unternommenen Reisen: Fische (St See also:Petersburg, 1888–1891); L . See also:Berg, Fishes of See also:Turkestan (Russian See also:text, St Peters-See also:burg, 1905) ; G . Radde, S . Kamensky and F . F . Kawraisky have worked out the Cyprinids and Salmonids of the See also:Caucasus (See also:Tiflis, 1896-1899) . (J) JAPAN: F . Steindachner and L . Doderlein, Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Fische japans," Denkschr . Ak . Wien, (vols . 67 and 68, 1883) ; K . Otaki, T . Fujita and T . Higurashi, Fishes of Japan (in Japanese) (See also:Tokyo, 1903, in progress) . Numerous papers by D . S . Jordan, in collaboration with J . O . Snyder, E . C . Starks, H . W See also:Fowler and N . Sindo . (K) EAST INDIES: F . Day, The Fauna of British India: Fishes (2 vols., London, 1889) (chiefly an abridgment of the author's Fishes of India) ; M . See also:Weber, " Die Siisswasserfische des Indischen Archipels," Zool . Ergebnisse e . Reise in Niederl . Ostind. iii . (Leiden, 1894) . Numerous contributions to the fauna of the See also:Malay Peninsula and Archipelago by G . A . Boulenger, L . Vaillant, F . Steindachner, G . Duncker, W . Volz and C . L . Popta . (L) AFRICA: G . A . Boulenger, Materiaux pour la faune du Congo: poissons nouveaux (See also:Brussels, 1898-1902, in progress); and Poissons du bassin du Congo (Brussels, 1901); G . Pfeffer, Die Thierwelt Ostafrikas: Fische (Berlin, 1896); A . Gunther, G . A . Boulenger, G . Pfeffer, F . Steindachner, D . Vinciguerra, J . Pellegrin and E . Lonnberg have published numerous contributions to the fish-fauna of tropical Africa in various periodicals . The marine fishes of South Africa have received special attention on the part of J . D . F . Gilchrist, Marine Investigations in South Africa, i. and ii . (1898–1904), and new species have been described by G . A . Boulenger and C . T . Regan . (M) NORTH AMERICA: D . S . Jordan and B . W . Evermann, The Fishes of North and Middle America (4 vols., See also:Washington, 1896–19oo) ; D . S . Jordan and B . W . Evermann, American Food and See also:Game Fishes (New York, 1902); D . S . Jordan and C . H . Gilbert " The Fishes of See also:Bering Sea," in See also:Fur-See also:Seals and Fur-See also:Seal Islands (Washington, 1899) ; The U.S . Bureau of Fisheries (since 1903) has published annually a Report and a Bulletin, containing a vast amount of information on North American fishes and every subject having a bearing on the fisheries of the United States; S . E . See also:Meek, " Fresh-water Fishes of See also:Mexico," Field Columb . Mus . Zool . V . (1904) . (N) SOUTH AMERICA: C . H. and R . S . Eigenmann, " A Catalogue of the Fresh-water Fishes of South America," Proc . U.S . Nat . See also:Miss . 14 (Washington, 1891); the same authors, F . Steindachner, G . A . Boulenger, C . Berg and C . T . Regan have published contributions in periodicals on this fauna . (0) Aus-TRALIA: J . E . See also:Tenison-See also:Woods, Fish and Fisheries of New South See also:Wales (See also:Sydney, 1882); J . See also:Douglas See also:Ogilby, Edible Fishes and Crustaceans of New South Wales (Sydney, 1893) ; J . Douglas Ogilby and E . R . See also:Waite are authors of numerous papers on Australian fishes in Proc . Linn . Soc . N.S . Wales and Rec . Austral . Mus . (P) SOUTH PACIFIC: D S . Jordan and B . W . Evermann, " See also:Shore Fishes of the Hawaiian Islands," Bull . U.S . Fish . Comm . 23 (1905) . (Q) See also:MADAGASCAR: H . E . Sauvage, Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar, par A . Grandidier. xvi.; Poissons (Paris, 1891) . (R) OCEANIC FISHES: G . B . Goode a.Id T . H . Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology (Washington, 1895); A . Gunther, Deep-sea Fishes of the " Challenger " Expedition (London, 1887) ; C . H . Gilbert, " Deep-sea Fishes of the Hawaiian Islands," Bull . U.S . Fish . Comm . 23 (1905); R . Collett, Norske Nordhays Expedition: Fiske (See also:Christiania, 188o) ; C . F . Laken, Dijmphna-Togtets Zoologisk-botaniske Udbytte: Kara-Havets Fiske (Copenhagen, 1886) ; L . Vaillant, Expeditions scienti- fiques du "Travailleur'' et du "Talisman": Poissons (Paris, 1888) ; A . Agassiz, Three Cruises of the U.S . Coast and See also:Geodetic Survey Steamer " See also:Blake " (See also:Boston and New York, 1888) ; A . Alcock, Illustrations of the Zoology of H.M.S . " Investigator ": Fishes (See also:Calcutta, 1892–1899, in progress); A . Alcock, Descriptive Catalogue of the Indian Deep-sea Fishes in the Indian Museum (Calcutta, 1899, contains references to all the previous papers of the author on the subject); R . Collett, Rcsultats des campagnes scientifiques accomplies par Albert I^* prince de See also:Monaco: poissons provenant des campagnes du yacht l'Hirondelle," (Monaco, 1896); R . Koehler, Resu tats scientifiques de la campagne'du " Caudan," (Paris, 1896); C . H . Gilbert and F . See also:Cramer, " Report on the Fishes dredged in Deep Water near the Hawaiian Islandss," Proc . U.S . Nat . Mus. xix . (Washington, 1896); C . Lutken, " Spolia Atlantica," Vidensk . Selsk . Skr. vii. and ix . (Copenhagen, 1892–1898) ; C . Lutken, Danish Ingolf Expedition, ii.: Ichthyological Results (Copenhagen, 1898); S . Garman, " Reports on an Exploration off the West Coast of Mexico, Central and South America, and off the Galapagos Islands in See also:charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the U.S . Fish See also:Commission Steamer "Albatross," during 1891," See also:Mena . Mus . Comp . Zool. vol. See also:xxiv . (Cambridge, U,S.A., 1899) . (S) ANTARCTIC FIsuEs: G . A . Boulenger, Report on the Collections made during the voyage of the " Southern Cross ": Fishes (London, 1902) ; L . Dollo, Expedition Antarctique Beige (S.Y . " Belgica ") . Poissons (See also:Antwerp, 1904) ; E . Lonnberg, Swedish South Polar Expedition: Fishes (Stockholm, 1905) ; G . A . Boulenger, Fishes of the " Discovery " Antarctic Expedition (London, 1906) . (G . A . B.)III . DEFINITION OF THE CLASS Pisces . ITS PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS Fishes, constituting the class Pisces, may be defined as Craniate Vertebrata, or Chordata, in which the anterior portion of the central nervous system is See also:expanded into a See also:brain surrounded by an unsegmented portion of the axial skeleton; which are provided with a heart, breathing through gills; and in which the limbs, if present, are in the form of fins, as opposed to the pentadactyle, structure common to the other Vertebrata . With the exception of a few forms in which lungs are present in addition to the gills, thus enabling the animal to breathe atmospheric air for more or less considerable periods (Dipneusti), all fishes are aquatic throughout their existence . In addition to the paired limbs, median fins are usually present, consisting of dermal rays See also:borne by endoskeletal supports, which in the more primitive forms are strikingly similar in structure to the paired fins that are assumed to have arisen from the breaking up of a lateral See also:fold similar to the See also:vertical folds out of which the dorsal, anal and caudal fins have been evolved . The body is naked, or scaly, or covered with bony See also:shields or hard spines . Leaving aside the Ostracophori, which are dealt with in a separate article, the fishes may be divided into three subclasses I . Cyclostomi or Marsipobranchii, with the See also:skull imperfectly See also:developed, without jaws, with a single nasal See also:aperture, without paired fins, and with an unpaired fin without dermal rays . Lampreys and See also:hag-fishes . II . Selachii or Chondropterygii, with the skull well developed but without membrane bones, with paired nasal apertures, with median and paired fins, the ventrals bearing prehensile organs (claspers) in the males . Sharks, skates and chimaeras . IV . ANATOMY1 The special importance of a study of the anatomy of fishes lies in the fact that fishes are on the whole undoubtedly the most archaic of existing craniates, and it is therefore to them especially that we must look for evidence as to the evolutionary history of morphological features occurring in the higher groups of vertebrates . In making a general survey of the morphology of fishes it is essential to take into See also:consideration the structure of the See also:young developing individual (See also:embryology) as well as that of the adult (See also:comparative anatomy in the narrow sense) . Palaeontology is practically dumb excepting as regards external form and skeletal features, and even of these our knowledge must for long be in a hopelessly imperfect state . While it is of the utmost importance to pay due attention to embryological data it is equally important to consider them' critically and in See also:conjunction with broad morphological considerations . Taken by themselves they are See also:apt to be extremely misleading . External Features.—The external features of a typical fish are intimately associated with its mode of life . Its shape is more or less that of a spindle; its surface is covered with a highly glandular epidermis, which is constantly producing lubricating mucus through the agency of which skin-See also:friction is reduced to an extraordinary degree; and finally it possesses a set of remarkable propelling organs or fins . The exact shape varies greatly from the typical spindle shape with See also:variations in the mode of life; e.g. bottom-living fishes may be much flattened from above downwards as in the rays, or from sidq to side in the Pleuronectids such as See also:flounder, See also:plaice or See also:sole, or the shape may be much elongated as in the eels . See also:Head, See also:Trunk and Tail.—In the body of the fish we may recognize the three main subdivisions of the body—head, trunk and tail—as in the higher vertebrates, but there is no definite narrowing of the anterior region to form a See also:neck such as occurs in the higher groups, though a suspicion of such a narrowing occurs in the young Lepidosiren . i For general anatomy of fishes, see T . W . Bridge, Cambridge Natural History, and R . Wiedersheim, Vergl . Anat. der Wirbelliere . The latter contains an excellent bibliography . The tail, or postanal region, is probably a secondary development—a prolongation of the hinder end of the body for motor purposes . This is indicated by the fact that it frequently develops See also:late in ontogeny . The vertebrate, in correlation perhaps with its extreme cephalization, develops from before backwards (except the alimentary See also:canal, which develops more en bloc), there remaining at the hind end for a prolonged period a mass of undifferentiated embryonic See also:tissue from the anterior side of which the definitive tissues are constantly being developed . After development has reached the level of the anus it still continues backwards and the tail region is formed, showing a continuation of the same tissues as in front, notochord, nerve See also:cord, gut, myotomes . Of these the (postanal) gut soon undergoes See also:atrophy . Fins.—The fins are extensions of the body surface which serve for propulsion . To give the necessary rigidity they are provided with special skeletal elements, while to give mobility they are provided with special muscles . These muscles, like the other voluntary muscles of the body, are derived from the primitive myotomes and are therefore segmental in origin . The fins are divisible into two main categories—the median or unpaired fins and the paired fins . The median fins are to be regarded as the more primitive . The fundamental structure of the vertebrate, with its median scales (" fulcra ") ; b, bony plates . skeletal See also:axis and its great See also:muscular mass divided into segments along each side of the body, indicates that its primitive method of See also:movement was by waves of lateral flexure, as seen in an Amphioxus. a cyclostome or an eel . The system of median fins consists in the first instance of a continuous fin-fold extending See also:round the posterior end of the body-as persists even in the adult in the existing Dipneusti . A continuous median fin-fold occurs also in various Teleosts (many deep-sea Teleosts, eels, there is a greatly increased size of the fin-fold—both dorsally and ventrally . There is further developed a highly characteristic asymmetry . In the original symmetrical or protocercal (=diphycercal) type of tail (as seen in a cyclostome, a Dipnoan and in most fish embryos) the skeletal axis of the body runs straight out to its tip—the tail fold being equally developed above and below the axis . In the highly developed caudal fin of the majority of fishes, however, the fin-fold is developed to a much greater extent on the From "Challenger " Reports Zool., published by ventral side, and See also:cone- x . \ ?. See also:Stationery of ce . skeletal axis is turned upwards as in the hclerocercal tail of sharks and sturgeons . The highest See also:stage in this evolution of the caudal fin is seen in the Teleostean fishes, where the ventral tail-fold becomes developed to such an extent as to produce a secondarily symmetrical appearance (homocercal tail, fig . 4) . The sharks have been referred to as possessing heterocercal tails, but, though this is true of the majority, within the limits of the group all three types of tail-fin occur, from the protoeercal tail of the fossil Pleuracanthids and the living Chlamydoselachus to the highly developed, practically homocercal tail of the See also:ancient Cladoselache (fig . 2) . The praecaudal portion of the fin-fold on the dorsal side of the body becomes broken into numerous finlets in living Crossopterygians, while in other fishes it disappears throughout part of its length, leaving only one, two or three enlarged portions—the dorsal fins (fig . 4, d.f.) . Similarly the praecaudal part of the fin-fold ventrally becomes reduced to a single anal fin (a.f.), occasionally continued backwards by a See also:series of finlets (Scombridae) . In, the sucker-fishes (Remora, Echeneis) the anterior dorsal fin is metamorphosed into a sucker by which the creature attaches itself to larger fishes, turtles, &c . The paired fins—though more recent developments than the median—are yet of very great morphological interest, c.f..-- Fmm Cambridge Natural History, vol. vii., " Fishes, &c.," by permission of Messrs . See also:Macmillan & Co., Ltd . &c.), though the highly specialized features in other respects make it probable that we have here to do with a secondary return to a See also:condition like the primitive one . In the See also:process of segmentation of the originally continuous fin-fold we notice first of all a separation of and an increase in size of that portion of the fin which from its position at the tip of the tail region is in the most advantageous position for producing movements of the body . There is thus formed the caudal fin . In this region ~/llllllll11l.9D!"" f From Cambridge Natural History, vol. vii., " Fishes, &c.," by permission of Messrs . Macmillan & Co., Ltd . g.r, Gill rakers . 1.1, Lateral See also:line organs. n, Nasal opening. p.f, Pelvic fin . p.op, Preoperculum. pt. f, See also:Pectoral fin . A, Side view . B, First bronchial arch . a.f, Anal fin . c. f, Caudal fin. d.f, Dorsal fin. g.f, Gill lamellae . as in them we are compelled to recognize the homologues of the paired limbs of the higher vertebrates . We accordingly distinguish the two pairs of fins as pectoral or anterior and pelvic (_" ventral ") or posterior . There are two main types of paired fin—the archipterygial type, a See also:paddle-like structure supported by a jointed axis which bears lateral rays and exists in an unmodified form in Neoceratodus alone amongst living fishes, and the actinopterygial type, supported by See also:fine raylike structures as seen in the fins of any See also:ordinary fish . The relatively Less efficiency of the archipterygium and its predominance amongst the more ancient forms of fishes point to its being the more archaic of these two types . In the less highly specialized groups of fishes the pectoral fins are close behind the head, the pelvic fins in the region of the cloacal opening . In the more specialized forms the pelvic fins frequently show a more or less extensive shifting towards the head, so that their position is described as thoracic (fig . 4) of jugular (See also:Gad us—See also:cod, See also:haddock, &c., fig . 5) . Flo . 5.—See also:Burbot (Lola vulgaris), with jugular ventral fins .
The median fin, especially in its caudal section, is the main propel-See also:ling organ: the paired fins in the majority of fishes serve for balancing
.
In the Dipneusti the paired fins are used for clambering about amidst vegetation, much in the same See also:fashion as the limbs of Urodeles
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In Ceratodus they also function as paddles
.
In various Teleosts the pectoral fins have acquired secondarily a See also:leg-like function, being used for creeping or skipping over the mud (Periophthalmus; cf. also Trigloids, Scorpaenids and Pediculati)
.
In the " flying " fishes the pectoral fins are greatly enlarged and are used as aeroplanes, their quivering movements frequently giving a (probably erroneous) impression of voluntary flapping movements
.
In the gobies and lumpsuckers (Cyclopteridae) the pelvic fins are fused to form an adhesive sucker; in the Gobiesocidae they take part in the formation of a somewhat similar sucker
.
The evolutionary history of the paired limbs forms a fascinating chapter in vertebrate morphology
.
As regards their origin two hypotheses have attracted special attention: (I) that enunciated by See also:Gegenbaur, according to which the See also:limb is a modified gill septum, and (2) that supported by See also: Each has been supported by plausible arguments, for which reference must be made to the literature of the subject.' Both views See also:rest upon the assumed occurrence of stages for the existence of which there is no direct evidence, viz. in the case of (t) transitional stages between gill septum and limb, and in the case of (2) a continuous lateral fin-fold . (There is no evidence that the lateral See also:row of spines in the acanthodian Climatius has any other than a defensive significance.) In the See also:opinion of the writer of this article, such assumptions are without See also:justification, now that our knowledge of Dipnoan and Crossopterygian and Urodele embryology points towards the former See also:possession by the primitive vertebrate of a series of projecting, voluntarily movable, and hence potentially motor structure on each side of the body . It must be emphasized that these —the true external gills—arc the only organs known actually to exist in vertebrates which might readily be transformed into limbs . When insuperable objections are adduced to this having actually taken place in the course of evolution, it will be time enough to fall back upon purely hypothetical ancestral structures on which to base the evolutionary history of the limbs . The ectoderm covering the general surface is highly glandular . In the case of the Dipneusti, See also:flask-shaped multicellular glands like those of Amphibians occur in addition to the scattered gland cells . A characteristic feature of glandular activity is the production of a slight See also:electrical disturbance . In the case of Malopterurur this elsewhere subsidiary function of the skin has become so exaggerated as to See also:lead to the See also:conversion of the skin of each side of the body into a powerful electrical organ.' Each of these consists of some two million small See also:chambers, each containing an electric disk and all deriving their nerve See also:supply from the branches of a single enormous axis See also:cylinder . This takes its origin from a gigantic ganglion See also:cell situated latero-dorsally in the See also:spinal cord between the levels of the first and second spinal nerves . See also:Cement Organs.—The larvae of certain Teleostomes and Dipnoans possess special glandular organs in the head region for the secretion of a sticky cement by which the young fish is able to attach itself to water-plants or other See also:objects . As a See also:rule these are ectodermal in origin; e.g. in Lepidosiren and Protopterus3 the crescentic cement organ lying ventrally behind the '- Cf . J . See also:Graham Kerr, Proc . Camb . Phil . So'. x . 227 . 2 For electric organs see W . See also:Biedermann, Electro-Physiology . 3 J . Graham Kerr, Quart . Journ . Mier . Sci. vol. xlvi.mouth consists of a glandular thickening of the deep layer of the ectoderm . In young ganoid fishes preoral cement organs occur . In Crossopterygians there is one See also:cup-shaped structure on each side immediately in front of the mouth . Here the glandular epithelium is endodermal, developed' as an outgrowth from the See also:wall of the alimentary canal, closely resembling a gill pouch . In Arnia s the same appears to be the case . In a few Teleosts similar organs occur, e.g . Sarcodaces, Hyperopisus,s where so far as is known they are ectodermal . Photogenic Organs.—The slimy secretion produced by the epidermal glands of fishes contains in some cases substances which apparently readily undergo a slow process of oxidation, giving out light of See also:low See also:wave-length in the process and so giving rise to a phosphorescent appearance . In many deep-sea fishes this See also:property of producing light-emitting secretion has under-gone great development, leading to the existence of definite photogenic organs . These vary much in character, and much remains to be done in working out their See also:minute structure . Good examples are seen in the Teleostean family Scopelidae, where they form brightly shining See also:eye-like spots scattered about the surface of the body, especially towards the ventral side . External Gills.—In young Crossopterygians and in the young Protopterus and Lepidosiren true external gills occur of the same morphological nature as those of Urodele amphibians . In Crossopterygians a single one is present on each side on the hyoid arch; in the two Dipnoans mentioned four are present From Trans . Zool . Soc. of London . on each side—on visceral See also:arches III., IV., V. and VI . (It may be recalled that in Urodeles they occur on arches III., IV. and V., with vestiges' on arches I. and II.) . Each external gill develops as a See also:projection of ectoderm with mesodermal core near the upper end of its visceral arch; the main aortic arch is prolonged into it as a See also:loop . When fully developed it is pinnate, and is provided with voluntary muscles by which it can be moved freely to renew the water in contact with its See also:respiratory surface . In the case of Polypterus a See also:short See also:rod of See also:cartilage projects from the From Phil . Transactions, Royal Society of London . hyoid arch into the base of the external gill . Their occurrence with identical main features in the three groups mentioned indicates that the external gills are important and archaic organs of the vertebrata . Their non-occurrence in at least some_ of the groups where they are absent is to be explained by die presence of a large vascular yolk See also:sac, which necessarily fulfils in a very efficient way the respiratory function . Alimentary Canal.—The alimentary canal forms a See also:tube traversing the body from mouth to cloacaI opening .
Corresponding with structural and functional See also:differences it is for descriptive
J
.
Graham Kerr, The Budgett Memorial Volume
.
J
.
See also:Phelps, Science, vol
.
N.S. ix. p
.
366; J
.
Eycleshymer and See also: S . Budgett, Trans . Zool . Soc . Lond. xvi., 1901, p . 130 . ' L . Definer, Zool . Jahrbiicher Anat . See also:Band xix . (1904), S . 434 . purposes divided into the following regions—(r) Buccal cavity or mouth cavity, (2) Pharynx, (3) See also:Oesophagus or gullet, (4) Stomach, (5) See also:Intestine, and (6) See also:Cloaca . The buccal cavity or mouth cavity is morphologically a stomodaeum, i.e. it represents an inpushing of the external surface . Its opening to the exterior is wide and gaping in the embryo in certain groups (See also:Selachians and Crossopterygians), and even in the adult among the Cyclostomata, but in the adult Gnathostome it can be voluntarily opened and shut in correlation with the presence of a hinged See also:jaw apparatus . The mouth opening is less or more ventral in position in Cyclostomes and Selachians, while in Dipnoans and Teleostomes it is usually terminal . In certain cases (e.g . Lepidosiren)t the buccal cavity arises by secondary excavation with-out any actual pushing in of ectoderm . It is highly characteristic 9f the vertebrata that the pharynx—the portion of the alimentary canal immediately behind the buccal cavity--communicates with the exterior by a series of paired clefts associated with the function of respiration and known as the visceral clefts . It is especially characteristic of fishes that a number of these clefts remain open as functional breathing organs in the adult . e.b.a The visceral clefts arise as hollow pouches (or at first solid From Bridge, Cambridge Natural 21islory, of the endoderm . vol. vii., "Fishes, &c." (by permission of projections) Macmillan & Co., Ltd.) . After Boas, Lehr- Each pouch fuses with the See also:buck der Zoologie (by permission of Gustav See also:Fischer). ectoderm at its See also:outer end and pharynx in an Elasmobranch (A) between pharynx and exterior. and a Teleost (B) ; 1, 2, &c., See also:Bran- chial septa . The mesenchymatous See also:pack- b.c, Opercular cavity. See also:ing tissue between consecu- b.l, Respiratory lamellae . Live clefts forms the visceral c, Coelom. arches, and See also:local condensation e.b.a, Opercular opening . hy.a, Hyoid arch. within each gives rise to im- hy.c, Hyobranchial cleft. portant skeletal elements—to 1.s, Valvular outer edge of gill which the name visceral arches septum. is often restricted . From the n, Nasal aperture . oes, Oesophagus . Particular skeletal structures op, Operculum. which develop in the visceral p.q, Palato quadrate cartilage. arches bounding it the anterior Ph, Pharynx. cleft is known as the hyoman- sp, Spiracle . dibular cleft, the next one as hvobranchial . In common usage the hyomandibular cleft is called the spiracle, and the series of clefts behind it the branchial clefts . The typical functional gill cleft forms a vertical slit, having on each side a gill septum which separates it from its neighbours in the series . The lining of the gill cleft possesses over a less or greater extent of its See also:area a richly developed network of capillary blood-vessels, through the thin covering of which the respiratory See also:exchange takes place between the blood and the water which washes through the gill cleft . The area of respiratory surface tends to become increased by the development of outgrowths . Frequently these take the form of See also:regular See also:plate-like structures known as gill lamellae . In the Selachians these lamellae are strap-like structures (Elasmobranch) attached along nearly their ' J . Graham Kerr, Quart . Journ . Mier . Sci. xlvi . 423 . whole length to the gill septum as shown in fig . 8, A . In the Holocephali and in the See also:sturgeon the outer portions of the gill septa have disappeared and this leads to the condition seen in the higher Teleostomes (fig . 8, B), where the whole of the septum has disappeared except its thick inner edge containing the skeletal arch . It follows that in these higher Teleostomesincluding the ordinary Teleosts—the gill lamellae are attached only at their extreme inner end . In the young of Selachians and certain Teleosts (e.g . Gymnarchus and Heterotis)2 the gill lamellae are prolonged as filaments which project freely to the exterior . These must not be confused with true external gills . The partial atrophy of the gill septa in the Teleostomes produces an important change in their appearance . Whereas in the Selachian a series of separate gill clefts is seen in external view each covered by a soft valvular backgrowth of its anterior See also:lip, in the Teleostean fish, on the other hand, a single large opening is seen on each side (opercular opening) covered over by the enormously enlarged valvular flap belonging to the anterior lip of the hyobranchial cleft . This flap, an outgrowth of the hyoid arch, is known as the operculum . In the Teleostomi there are usually five functional clefts, but these are the survivors of a formerly greater number . Evidence of reduction is seen at both ends of the series . In front of the first functional cleft (the hyobranchial) there is laid down in the embryo the rudiment of a spiracular cleft . .In the less highly organized fishes this survives in many cases as an open cleft . In many sharks and in sturgeons the spiracle forms a conspicuous opening just behind the eye . In rays and skates, which are modified in correlation with their ground feeding See also:habit, the spiracle is a large opening which during the great widening out of the body during development comes to be situated on the dorsal side, while the branchial clefts come to be ventral in position . In existing Crossopterygians the spiracle is a slit-like opening on the dorsal side of the head which can be opened or closed at will . In Dipneusti,as in the higher Teleostomes, the spiracle is found as an embryonic rudiment, but in this case it gives rise in the adult to a remarkable sense organ of problematical function.' Traces of what appear to be pre-spiracular clefts exist in the embryos of various forms . Perhaps the most remarkable of these is to be found in the larval Crossopterygian,4 and apparently also in Amiee at least, amongst the other ganoids, where a pair of entodermal pouches become cut off from the main entoderm and, establishing an opening to the exterior, give rise to the lining of the cement organs of the larva . Posteriorily there is evidence that the See also:extension backwards of the series of gill clefts was much greater in the primitive fishes . In the surviving sharks (Chlamydoselachus and Notidanus cinereus), there still exist in the adult respectively six and seven branchial clefts, while in embryonic Selachians there are frequently to be seen pouch-like outgrowths of entoderm apparently representing rudimentary gill pouches but which never develop . Further evidence of the progressive reduction in the series of clefts is seen in the reduction of their functional activity at the two ends of the series . The spiracle, even where persisting in the adult, has lost its gill lamellae either entirely or excepting a few vestigial lamellae forming a " pseudobranch " on its anterior wall (Selachians, sturgeons) . A similar reduction affects the lamellae on the anterior wall of the hyobranchial cleft (except in Selachians) and on the posterior wall of the last branchial cleft . A pseudobranch is frequently present in Teleostomes on the anterior wall of the hyobranchial cleft, i.e. on the inner or posterior-See also:face of the operculum . It is believed by some morphologists to belong really to the cleft in front.' Phylogeny.—The phylogeny of the gill clefts or pouches is uncertain . The only organs of vertebrates comparable with them morphologically are the enterocoelic pouches of the entoderm which 2 J . S . Budgett, op. cit . 3 W . E . Agar, Anat . See also:Ana., 1905, S . 298 . J . Graham Kerr, The Budgett Memorial Volume . J . Phelps, Science, vol . N.S. ix. p . 366; J . Eycleshymer and Wilson, Amer . Journ . Anat., v . 1906, p . 154 . ' F . See also:Maurer, Morphol . Jahrb. ix., 1884, S . 229, and xiv., 1888, S . 1 See also:j5 . give rise to the mesoderm . It is possible that the respiratory significance of the wall of the gill cleft has been secondarily acquired . This is indicated by the fact that they appear in some cases to be lined by an ingrowth of ectoderm . This suggests that there may have been a spreading inwards of respiratory surface from the external gills . It is conceivable that before their walls became directly respiratory the gill clefts served for the pumping of fresh water over the external gills at the bases of which they See also:lie . See also:Lung.—As in the higher vertebrates, there develops in all the main groups of gnathostomatous fishes, except the Selachians, an outgrowth of the pharyngeal wall intimately associated with gaseous interchange . In the Crossopterygians and Dipnoans this pharyngeal outgrowth agrees exactly in its midventral origin and in its blood-supply with the lungs of the higher vertebrates, and there can be no question about its being morphologically the same structure as it is also in function . In the Crossopterygian the ventrally placed slit-like glottis leads into a common chamber produced anteriorly into two horns and continued backwards into two " lungs." These are smooth, thin-walled, saccular structures, the right one small, the left very large and extending to the hind end of the splanchnocoele . In the Dipnoans the lung has taken a dorsal position close under the vertebral See also:column and above the splanchnocoele . Its walls are sacculated, almost spongy in Lepidosiren and Protopterus, so as to give increase to the respiratory surface . In Nexeratodus (fig . 9) an indication of division into two halves is seen in the presence of two prominent See also:longitudinal ridges, one dorsal and one ventral . In Lepidosiren and Protopterus the organ is completely divided except at its anterior end into a right and a left lung . The anterior portion of the lung or lungs is connected with the median ventral glottis by a short wide See also:vestibule which lies on the right side of the oesophagus.; In the Teleostei the representative of the lung, here termed the swimbladder, has for its predominant function a hydro-static one; it acts as a See also:float . It arises as a diverticulum of the gut-wall which may retain a tubular connexion with the gut (physostomatous condition) or may in the adult completely lose such connexion (physoclistic) . It shows two conspicuous differences from the lung of other forms: (r) it arises in the young fish as a dorsal instead of as a ventral diverticulum, and (2) it Flo . 9.--Lung ofNeoceratodus, derives its blood-supply not from opened in its lower See also:half to show the See also:sixth aortic arch but from its cellular pouches. as Right branches of the dorsal aorta. half; h, Left half ; c, Cellularfunction of the lung in such a form to become hydrostatic we might expect the course of evolution to lead to a shifting of the glottis dorsalwards so as to bring it nearer to the definitive situation of the lung . (2) In Erythrinus and other Characinids the glottis is not See also:mid-ventral but decidedly lateral in position, suggesting either a retention of, or a return to, ancestral stages in the dorsalward See also:migration of the glottis . (3) The blood-supply of the Teleostean swimbladder is from branches of the dorsal aorta, which may be distributed over a long anteroposterior extent of that See also:vessel . Embryology, however, shows that the swimbladder arises as a localized diverticulum . It follows that the blood-supply from a long stretch of the aorta can hardly be primitive . We shogid rather expect the primitive blood-supply to be from the main See also:arteries of the pharyngeal wall, i.e. from the hinder aortic arch as is the ease with the lungs of other forms . Now in Amia at least we actually find such a blood-supply, there being here a pulmonary artery corresponding with that in lung-possessing forms . Taking these points into consideration there seems no valid See also:reason for doubting that in lung and swim-bladder we are dealing with the same morphological structure . Function.—In the Crossopterygians and Dipnoans the lung is used for respiration, while at the same time fulfilling a hydro-static function . Amongst the Actinopterygians a few forms still use it for respiration, but its main function is that of a float . In connexion with this function there exists an interesting compensatory mechanism whereby the amount of See also:gas in the swimbladder may be diminished (by absorption), or, on the other hand, increased, so as to counteract alterations in specific gravity produced, e.g. by change of pressure with" change of See also:depth . This mechanism is specially developed in physoclistic forms,where there occur certain. glandular patches (" red glands ") in the lining epithelium of the swimbladder richly stuffed with capillary blood-vessels and serving apparently to secrete gas into the swimbladder . That the gas in the swimbladder is produced by some vital process, such as secretion, is already indicated by its See also:composition, as it may contain nearly go % of See also:oxygen in deep-sea forms or a similar proportion of See also:nitrogen in fishes from deep lakes, i.e. its composition is quite different from what it would be were it accumulated within the swimbladder by mere ordinary See also:diffusion processes . Further, the formation of gas is shown by experiment to be controlled by branches of the vagus and sympathetic nerves in an exactly similar fashion to the secretion of saliva in a salivary gland . (See below for relations of swimbladder to See also:ear) . Of the important non-respiratory derivatives of the pharyngeal wall (See also:thyroid, thymus, postbranchial bodies, &c.), only the thyroid calls for special mention, as important clues to its evolutionary history are afforded by the lampreys . In the larval See also:lamprey the thyroid develops as a longitudinal groove on the pharyngeal See also:floor . From the anterior end of this groove there pass a pair of peripharyngeal ciliated tracts to the dorsal side of the pharynx where they pass backwards to the hind end of the pharynx . Morphologically the whole apparatus corresponds closely with the endostyle and peripharyngeal and dorsal ciliated tracts of the pharynx of Amphioxus . The See also:correspondence extends to function, as the open thyroid'groove secretes a sticky mucus which passes into the pharyngeal cavity for the entanglement of food particles exactly as in Amphioxus . Later on the thyroid groove becomes shut off from the pharynx; its secretion now accumulates in the lumina of its interior and it functions as a ductless gland as in the Gnathostomata . The only conceivable explanation of this developmental history of the thyroid in the lamprey is that it is a repetition of phylogenetic history . Behind the pharynx comes the main portion of the alimentary canal concerned with the digestion and absorption of the food,, This forms a tube varying greatly in length, more elongated and coiled in the higher Teleostornes, shorter and straighter in the Selachians, Dipnoans and lower Teleostornes . The oesophagus or gullet, usually forming a short, wide tube, leads into the glandular, more or less dilated stomach . This is frequently in the form of a See also:letter J, the longer limb being continuous with the gullet, the shorter with the intestine . The See also:curve of the J may be asin Polypterus and the See also:perch produced backwards into a large See also:pocket . The intestine is usually marked off from the stomach by a See also:ring-like sphincter muscle forming the pouches; e, Pulmonary vein; These differences are held by f, Arterial blood-vessel; oe, many to he sufficient to invalidate l)esunhagus, opened to show the homologizing of the swim- glottis (gl.) bladder with the lung . The follow- ing facts, however, appear to do away with the force of such a contention . (t) In the Dipneusti (e.g . Neoceraladies) the lung apparatus has acquired a dorsal position. but its ctuu,cxion with the mid-ventral glottis is asym,netri' el, passing round the right side of the gut . Were the predominant pyloric See also:valve . In the lower gnathostomatous fishes (Selachians, I Crossopterygians, Dipnoans, sturgeons) the intestine possesses the highly characteristic See also:spiral valve, a shelf-like projection into its lumen which pursues a spiral course, and along the turns of which the food passes during the course of digestion . From its universal occurrence in the groups mentioned we conclude that it is a structure of a very archaic type, once characteristic of ancestral Gnathostomata; a hint as to its morphological significance is given by its method of development.' In an early stage of development the intestinal rudiment is coiled into a spiral and it is by the See also:fusion together of the turns that the spiral valve arises . The only feasible explanation of this peculiar method of development seems to lie in the See also:assumption that the ancestral gnathostome possessed an elongated coiled intestine which subsequently became shortened with a fusion of its coils . In the higher fishes the spiral valve has disappeared--b'ng still found, however, in a reduced condition in Amid and :Le idosteus, and possibly as a faint vestige in one or two Teleosts (certain Clupeidue 2 and Salmonidae3) . In the majority of the l Teleosts the absence of spiral valves is coupled with a secondary See also:elongation of the intestinal region, which in extreme cases (Loricariidae) may be accompanied by a secondary spiral coiling . The terminal part of the alimentary canal—the cloaca—is characterized by the fact that into it open the two See also:kidney ducts . In Teleostomes the cloaca is commonly flattened out, so that the kidney ducts and the alimentary canal come to open in-dependently on the outer surface . The lining of the alimentary canal is throughout the greater part of its extent richly glandular . And at certain points local enlargements of the secretory surface take place so as to form glandular diverticula . The most ancient of these as indicated by its occurrence even in Amphioxus appears to be the liver, which, originally—as we may assume—mainly a See also:digestive gland, has in the existing Craniates developed important excretory and glycogen-storing functions . Arising in the embryo as a See also:simple caecum, the liver becomes in the adult a compact gland of very large size, usually bi-lobed in shape and lying in the front portion of the splanchnocoele . The stalk of the liver rudiment becomes drawn out into a tubular bile duct, which may become subdivided into branches, and as a rule develops on its course a pocket-like expansion, the gall-bladder . This may hang freely in the splanchnocoele or may be, as in many Selachians, imbedded in the liver substance . The See also:pancreas also arises by localized bulging outwards of the intestinal lining—there being commonly three distinct rudiments in the embryo . In the Selachians the whitish compact pancreas of the adult opens into the intestine some little distance behind the opening of the bile duct, but in the Teleostomes it becomes involved in the liver outgrowth and mixed with its tissue, being frequently recognizable only by the study of microscopic sections . In the Dipnoans the pancreatic rudiment remains imbedded in the wall of the intestine: its duct is united with that of the liver . Pyloric Caeca.—In the Teleostomi one or more glandular diverticula commonly occur at the commencement of the intestine and are known as the pyloric caeca . There may be a single caecum (crossopterygians, Ammodytes amongst Teleosts) or there may be nearly two hundred (See also:mackerel) . In the sturgeons the numerous caeca form a compact gland . In several families of Teleosts, on the other hand, there is no trace of these pyloric caeca . In Selachians a small glandular diverticulum known as the rectal gland opens into the terminal part of the intestine on its dorsal side . Coelomic Organs.—The development of the mesoderm in the restricted sense (mesothelium) as seen in the fishes (lamprey, Lepidosiren, Protopterus, Polypterus) appears to indicate beyond i J . See also:Ruckert, Arch . Entwickelungsmech . Band iv., 1897, S . 298; J . Graham Kerr, Phil . Trans . B . 192, 1900, p . 325, and The Budgett Memorial Volume . 2 Cuvier et Valenciennes, 'Hist. nat. des poiss. xix., 1846, p . 151 . 7 J . Rathke, Ub. it . Darmkanal u.s.w. it . Fische, See also:Halle, 1824, S . 62 . doubt that the mesoderm segments of vertebrates are really enterocoelic pouches in which the development of the lumen is delayed . Either the inner, or both inner and outer (e.g . Lepidosiren) walls of the mesoderm segment pass through a myoepithelial condition and give rise eventually to the great muscle segments (myomeres, or myotomes) which lie in series on each side of the trunk . In the fishes these remain distinct throughout life . The fins, both median and paired, obtain their musculature by the ingrowth into them of muscle buds from the adjoining myotomes . Electrical Organs.'—It is characteristic of muscle that at the moment of contraction it produces a slight electrical disturbance . In certain fishes definite tracts of the musculature show a reduction of their previ- ously predominant function of contraction and an increase of their previously subsidiary function of producing electrical disturbance; so that the latter function is now predominant . In the skates (Raia) the electrical organ is a fusiform structure derived from the lateral musculature of the tail; in Gymnotus—the electric eel—and in Mormyrus it forms an enormous structure occupying the place of the ventral halves of the myotomes along nearly the whole length of the body; in Torpedo it forms a large, somewhat kidney- shaped structure as From Gegenbaur, Untersuchungen zur vergleich, viewed from above Anat. der Wirbeltiere, by permission of Wilhelm lying on each side of the Engelmann . head and derived from Fin. to.—View of Torpedo from the dorsal the musculature of the side: the electric organs are exposed. anterior visceral arches . In Torpedo the nerve- I, Forebrain . supply is derived from II, Mesencephalon . See also:cranial nerves VII . IX . III, Cerebellum . and the anterior bran- IV, Electric lobe . chiai branches of X. br, Common muscular sheath covering The electric organ branchial clefts (on the left side this has been removed so as to expose the is composed of pris- series of branchial sacs). matic columns each f, Spiracle . built up of a row of o.e, Electric organ, on the left side the compartments . Each nerve-supply is shown. o, Eye . compartment contains t, Sensory tubes of lateral line system . a lamellated electric disc representing the shortened-up and otherwise metamorphosed muscle fibre . On one face (ventral in Torpedo, anterior in Raia) of the electric disc is a gigantic end-plate supplied by a beautiful, dichotomously branched, terminal nervous arborization . The development of the mesoderm of the head region is too obscure for treatment here.° The ventral portion of the trunk mesoderm gives rise to the splanchnocoel or general coelom . Except in the Myxinoids the anterior part of the, splanchnocoel becomes separated off as a pericardiac cavity, though in adult Selachians the separation becomes incomplete, the two cavities being in communication by a pericardio-peritoneal canal . Nephridial System.—The kidney system in fishes consists of segmentally arranged tubes leading from the coelom into a longitudinal duct which opens within the hinder end of the enteron—the whole forming what is known as the archinephros (Lankester) or holonephros (See also:Price) . Like the other segmented ° Cf . W . Biedermann, Electro-Physiology . e Literature in N . K . Koltzoff, Bull . Soc . Nat . Moscou, 1904, p . 259• t organs of the vertebrate the archinephros develops from before backwards . The sequence is, however, not regular . A small number of tubules at the head end of the series become specially enlarged and are able to meet the excretory needs during larval existence (Pronephros): the immediately succeeding tubules remain undeveloped, and then come the tubules of the rest of the series which form the functional kidney of the adult (Mesonephros) . The kidney tubules subserve the excretory function in two different ways . The wall of the tubule, bathed in blood from the posterior See also:cardinal vein, serves to See also:extract nitrogenous See also:pro-ducts of See also:excretion from the blood and pass them into the lumen of the tubule . The open ciliated See also:funnel or nephrostome at the coelomic end of the tubule serves for the passage outwards of coelomic fluid to flush the cavity of the tubule . The secretory activity of the coelomic lining is specially concentrated in certain limited areas in the neighbourhood of the nephrostomes, each such area ensheathing a rounded mass depending into the coelom and formed of a blood-vessel coiled into a kind of skein—a glomerulus . In the case of the pronephros the glomeruli are as a rule fused together into a single glomus . In the mesonephros they remain separate and in this case the portion of coelom surrounding the glomerulus tends to be nipped off from the general coelom—to form a Malpighian body . The separation may be incomplete—the Malpighian coelom remaining in connexion with the general coelom by a narrow peritoneal canal . The splanchnocoelic end of this is usually ciliated and is termed a peritoneal funnel: it is frequently confused with the nephrostome . Mesonephros.—The kidney of the adult fish is usually a compact gland extending over a considerable distance in an anteroposterior direction and lying immediately dorsal to the coelomic cavity . Peritoneal funnels are present in the adult of certain Selachians (e.g . Acanthias, Squatina), though apparently in at least some of these forms they no longer communicate with the Malpighian bodies or tubules . The kidneys of the two sides become fused together posteriorly in Protopterus and in some Teleosts . The mesonephric ducts undergo fusion posteriorly in many cases to form a median urinary or urinogenital sinus . In the Selachians this median sinus is prolonged forwards into a pair of See also:horn-like continuations—the sperm sacs . In Dipnoans the sinus becomes greatly dilated and forms a large, rounded, dorsally placed cloacal caecum . In Actinopterygians a urinary bladder of similar morphological import is commonly present . Gonads.—The portion of coelomic lining which gives rise to the reproductive cells retains its primitive relations most nearly in the See also:female, where, as a rule, the genital cells are still See also:shed into the splanchnocoele . Only in Teleostomes (Lepidosteus and most Teleosts) the modification occurs that the ovary is shut off from the splanchnocoele as a closed cavity continuous with its duct . In a few Teleosts (Salmonidae, Muraenidae, Cobitis) the ovary is not a closed sac, its eggs being shed into the coelom as in other groups . The appearance of the ovary naturally varies greatly with the character of the eggs . The portion of coelomic lining which gives rise to the male genital cells (testis) is in nearly, if not quite, all cases, shut off from the splanchnocoele . The testes are commonly elongated in form . In Dipneusti' (Lepidosiren and Protopterus) the hinder portion of the elongated testis has lost its sperm-producing function, though the spermatozoa produced in the anterior portion have to See also:traverse it in order to reach the kidney . In Yul yplerus 2 the testis is continued backwards as a " testis See also:ridge," which appears to correspond with the posterior vesicular region of the testis in Lepidosiren and Protopterus . Here also the spermatozoa pass back through the cavities of the testis ridge to reach the kidney duct . In the young Teleost' the rud ment of the duct forms a backward continuation of the 1 J . Graham Kerr, Proc . Zool . Soc . Lond . (1901), p . 484 . z J . S . Budgett, Trans . Zool . Soc . Lond. xv . (1901), vol. p . 24 . H . F . Jungersen, Arb. zool. toot . Inst . IVurzburg, Band ix., 1889.testis containing a network of cavities and opening as a rule posteriorly into the kidney duct . It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the testis duct of the Teleost is for the most part the equivalent morphologically of the posterior vesicular region of the testis of Polypterus and the Dipneusti . Relations of Renal and Reproductive Organs . (r) Female . In the Selachians and Dipnoans the oviduct is of the type (Mullerian duct) present in the higher vertebrates and apparently representing a split-off portion of the archinephric duct . At its anterior end is a wide funnel-like coelomic opening . Its walls are glandular and secrete See also:accessory coverings for the eggs . In the great majority of Teleosts and in Lepidosteus the oviduct possesses no coelomic funnel, its walls being in structural continuity with the wall of the ovary . In most of the more primitive Teleostomes (Crossopterygians, sturgeons, Amia) the oviduct has at its front end an open coelomic funnel, and it is difficult to find adequate reason for refusing to regard such oviducts as true Mullerian ducts . On this See also:interpretation the condition characteristic of Teleosts would be due to the lips of the oviduct becoming fused with the ovarian wall, and the duct itself would be a Mullerian duct as elsewhere . A departure from the normal arrangement is found in those Teleosts which shed their eggs into the splanchnocoele, e.g. amongst Salmonidae, the See also:smelt (Osmerus) and capelin (Mallotus) possess a pair of oviducts resembling Mullerian ducts while the See also:salmon possesses merely a pair of genital pores opening together behind the anus . It seems most probable that the latter condition has been derived from the former by reduction of the Mullerian ducts, though it has been argued that the See also:con-See also:verse process has taken place . The genital pores mentioned must not be confused with the abdominal pores, which in many adult fishes, particularlyinthosewithout open peritoneal funnels, lead from coelom directly to the exterior in the It. region of the cloacal opening . These appear to be recent developments, and to have nothing to do morphologically with the genitourinary system.' (2) Male.—It seems that primitively the male reproductive elements like the female were shed into the coelom and passed thence through the nephridial tubules . In correlation probably with the greatly reduced size of these elements they are commonly no longer shed into the splanchnocoele, but are conveyed from the testis through covered-in canals to the Malpighian bodies or kidney tubules . The system of covered-in canals forms the testicular network, the individual canals being termed See also:vasa efferentia . In all See also:probability the series of vasa efferentia was originally spread over the whole length of the elongated testis (cf . Lepidosteus), but in existing fishes the series is as a rule ' E . J . Bles, Proc . Roy . Soc . 62, 1897, p . 232 . From Arch. zool. experintenlale, by permission of See also:Schleicher Frees . m.n . 1, Anterior (genital) portion of mesonephros with its coiled duct . m.n . 2, Posterior (renal) portion of mesonephros . s.s, Sperm sac . T, Testis . u," Ureter " formed by fusion of collecting tubes of renal portion of mesonephros . u.g.s, Urino-genital sinus; v.s, Vesicula seminalis . restricted to a comparatively short anteroposterior extent . In Selachians the vasa efferentia are restricted to the anterior end of testis and kidney, and are connected by a longitudinal canal ending blindly in front and behind . The number of vasa efferentia varies and in the rays (Raia, Torpedo) may be reduced to a single one opening directly into the front end of the mesonephric duct . The anterior portion of the mesonephros is much reduced in size in correlation with the fact that it has lost its renal function . The hinder part, which is the functional kidney, is considerably enlarged . The primary tubules of this region of the kidney have undergone, a modification of high morphological interest . Their distal portions have become much elongated, they are more or less fused, and their openings into the mesonephric duct have undergone backward migration until they open together either into the mesonephric duct at its posterior end or into the urinogenital sinus independently of the mesonephric duct . The mesonephric duct is now connected only with the anterior part of the kidney, and serves merely as a vas deferens or sperm duct . In correlation with this it is somewhat enlarged, especially in its posterior portion, to form a vesicula seminalis . The morphological interest of these features lies in the fact that they represent a stage in evolution which carried a little farther would lead to a complete separation of the definitive kidney (metanephros) from the purely genital anterior section of the mesonephros (epididymis), as occurs so characteristically in the Amniota . Dipneusti.—In Lepidosiren 1 a small number (about half a dozen) of vasa efferentia occur towards the hind end of the vesicular part of the testis and open into Malpighian bodies . In Protopterus the vasa efferentia are reduced to a single one on each side at the extreme hind end of the testis . Teleostomi.—In the actinopterygian Ganoids a well-developed testicular network is present; e.g. in Lepidosteus 2 numerous vasa efferentia arise from the testis along nearly its whole length and pass to a longitudinal canal lying on the surface of the A°.' B C 'D Graham Kerr, Proc . Zool . Sac . London . A, Distributed , ondition of vasa D, Direct communication be- efferentia (Acipenser, Lepi- tween testis and kidney dosteus). duct (Polypterus,Teleosts) . B, Vasa efferentia reduced to a c.f, Nephrostome leading from few at the hind end (Lepi- Malpighian coelom into dosiren). kidney tubule . C, Reduction of vasa efferentia T,, Functional region of testis. to a single one posteriorly T2, Vesicular region of testis . (Protopterus) . WD, Mesonephric duct . kidney, from which in turn transverse canals lead to the Mal- pighian bodies . (In the case of Amia they open into the tubules or even directly into the mesonephric duct.) In the Teleosts and in Polypterus there is no obvious connexion between testis and kidney, the wall of the testis being continuous with that of its duct, much as is the case with the ovary and its duct in the female . In all probability this peculiar condition is to be 1 J . Graham Kerr, Proc . Zool . Soc . Lond . (1901) p . 484 . ' F . M . Balfour and W . N . See also:Parker, Phil . Trans . (1882) . explained 3 by the reduction of the testicular network to a single vas efferens (much as in Protopterus or as in Raia and various anurous Amphibians at the front end of the series) which has come to open directly into the mesonephric duct (cf. fig . 12) . Organs of the Mesenchyme.—In vertebrates as in all other Metazoa, except the very lowest, there are numerous cell elements which no longer form part of the regularly arranged See also:epithelial layers, but which take part in the formation of the packing tissue of the body . Much of this forms the various kinds of connective tissue which fill up many of the spaces between the various epithelial layers; other and very important parts of the general mesenchyme become specialized in two definite directions and give rise to two special systems of organs . One of these is characterized by the fact that the intercellular substance or See also:matrix assumes a more or less rigid character—it may be infiltrated with salts of See also:lime—giving rise to the supporting tissues of the skeletal system . The other is characterized by the inter-cellular matrix becoming fluid, and by the cell elements losing their connexion with one another and forming the characteristic fluid tissue, the blood, which with its well-marked containing walls forms the blood vascular system . Skeletal System.—The skeletal system may be considered under three headings—(r) the chordal skeleton, (2) the cartilaginous skeleton and (3) the osseous skeleton . 1 . Chordal Skeleton.—The most ancient See also:element of the skeleton appears to be the notochord—a cylindrical rod composed of highly vacuolated cells lying ventral to the central nervous system and dorsal to the gut . Except in Amphioxus—where the condition may probably be secondary, due to degenerative shortening of the central nervous system—the notochord extends from a point just behind the infundibulum of the brain (see below) to nearly the tip of the tail . In ontogeny the notochord is a derivative of the dorsal wall of the archenteron . The outer layer of cells, which are commonly less vacuolated and form a " chordal epithelium," soon secretes a thin cuticle which ensheaths the notochord and is known as the primary sheath . Within this there is formed later a secondary sheath, like the primary, cuticular in nature . This secondary sheath attains a considerable thickness and plays an important part in strengthening the notochord . The notochord with its sheaths is in existing fishes essentially the skeleton of early life (embryonic or larval) . In the adult it may, in the more primitive forms (Cyclostomata, Dipneusti), persist as an important part of the skeleton, but as a rule it merely forms the See also:foundation on which the cartilaginous or bony vertebral column is laid down . 2 . Cartilaginous or Chondral Skeleton.—(A) Vertebral column.' In the embryonic connective tissue or mesenchyme lying just outside the primary sheath of the notochord there are developed a dorsal and a ventral series of paired nodules of cartilage known as arcualia (fig . 13, d.a, v.a) . The dorsal arcualia are commonly prolonged upwards by supradorsal cartilages which complete the neural arches and serve to protect the spinal cord . The ventral arcualia become, in the tail region only, also incorporated in complete arches—the haemal arches . In correlation with the flattening of the body of the fish from side to side the arches are commonly prolonged into elongated neural or haemal spines . The relations of the arcualia to the segmentation of the body, as shown by myotomes and spinal nerves, is somewhat obscure . The mesenchyme in which they arise is segmental in origin (sclerotom, which suggests that they too may have been primitively segmental, but in existing fishes there are commonly two sets of arcualia to each body segment . In gnathostomatous fishes the arcualia See also:play a most important part in that cartilaginous tissue derived from them comes into special relationships with the notochord and gives rise to the vertebral column which functionally replaces this notochord in most of the fishes . This replacement occurs according to two different methods, giving rise to the different types of vertebral column known as chordacentrous and arcicentrous . ' J . Graham Kerr, Proc . Zool . Soc . Lond . (1901), p . 495 . ' H . Gadow and E . C . See also:Abbott, Phil . Trans . 186 (1895), p . 163 See also:cave centrum in general appearance much like that of the Selachians In Lepidosteus the spaces between adjacent centra become filled by, a secondary development of intervertebral cartilage which then splits in such a way that the definitive vertebrae are opisthocoelous, (a) Chordacentrous type . An incipient stage in the evolution of a chordacentrous vertebral column occurs in the Dipneusti, where cartilage cells from the arcualia become amoeboid and migrate into the substance of the secondary sheath, See also:boring their way through the primary sheath (fig . 13, C) . They wander throughout the whole extent of the secondary sheath, colonizing it as it were, and See also:settle down as typical stationary cartilage cells . The secondary sheath is thus converted into a cylinder of cartilage . In Selachians exactly the same thing takes place, but in recent forms development goes a step further, as the cartilage cylinder becomes.. broken into a series of segments, known as vertebral centra . The wall of each segment becomes much thickened in the middle so that the notochord becomes constricted within each centrum and the space occupied by iti.e. See also:concave behind, See also:convex in front . Ribs.—In the Crossopterygians a See also:double set of " ribs " is present on each side of the vertebral column, a vential set lying immediately outside the splanchnocoelic lining and apparently serially homologous with the haemal arches of the caudal region, and a second set passing outwards in the thickness of the body wall at a more dorsal level . In the Teleostomes and Dipnoans only the first type is present; in the Selachians only the second . It would appear that it is the latter which is homologous with the ribs of vertebrates above fishes . Median Fin Skeleton.—The foundation of the skeleton of the median fins consists of a series of rod-like elements, the radialia, each of which frequently is segmented into three portions . In a few cases the radialia correspond segmentally with the neural and haemal arches {living Dipnoans, Pleuracanthus tail region) and this suggests that they represent morphologically prolongations of the neural and haemal spines . That this is so is rendered probable by the fact that we must regard the evolution of the system of median fins as commencing with a simple flattening of the posterior part of the body . It is only natural to suppose that the edges of the flattened region would be at first supported merely by prolongations of the already existing spinous processes . In the Cyclostomes (where they are branched) and in the Selachians, the radialia form the main supports of the fin, though already in the latter they are reinforced by a new set of fin rays apparently related morphologically to the osseous or placoid skeleton (see below) . The series of radialia tends to undergo the same process of local concentration which characterizes the fin-fold as a whole . In its extreme form this leads to complete fusion of the basal portions of a number of radialia (dorsal fins of Holoptychius and various Selachians, and anal fin of Pleuracanthus) . In view of the identity in function it is not surprising that a remarkable resemblance exists between the See also:mechanical arrangements (of skeleton, muscles, &c.), of the paired and unpaired fins . The resemblance to paired fins becomes very striking in some of the cases where the basal fusion mentioned above takes place (Pleuracanthus) . (B) Chondrocraniuml.—In front of the vertebral column lies' the cartilaginous trough, the chondrocranium, which protects the brain . This consists of a praechofdal portion-- From wiedersheim, Grundrisi der vergleichenden Analomie, by permission of Gustav Fisch . morphology of the vertebral column . A, Primitive conditions as seen c, Centrum . in any young embryo. d.a, Dorsal arcualia . B, Condition as it occurs in n.a, Neural arch . Cyclostomata, sturgeons, nc, Notochord. embryos of bony Actino- nc.ep, Chordal epithelium . pterygians. n.sp, Neural spine . C, Condition found in Sela- sh.i, Primary sheath. chians and Dipnoans. sh.a, Secondary sheath . D and E, Illustrating the de- See also:ski, Connective tissue . velopmental process in tr.p, Transverse process . bony Actinopterygians and v.a, Ventral arcualia. higher vertebrates . is shaped like the cavity of a See also:dice-See also:box . When free from notochord and surrounding tissues such a cartilaginous centrum presents a deep conical cavity at each end (aniphecoelous) . A secondary modification of the centrum consists in the calcification of certain zones of the cartilaginous matrix . The precise arrangement of these calcified zones varies in different families and affords characters which:are of taxonomic importance in palaeontology where only skeletal structures are available (see SELACHIANS) . (b) Arcicentrous type . Already in the Selachians the vertebral column is to a certain extent strengthened by the broadening of the basis of the arcualia so as partially to surround the centra . In the Teleostomes, with the exceptions of those ganoids mentioned, the expanded bases of the arcualia undergo complete fusion to form cartilaginous centra which, unlike the chordacentrous centra, lie outside the primary sheath (See also:figs . 13, D and E) . In these forms no invasion of the secondary sheath by cartilage cells takes place . - The composition of the groups of arcualia which give rise to the individual centrum is different in different groups . The end result is an amphicoelou's.or bicon- N Trans . Roy . Soc . Edinburgh . H, Hyoid arch. q, Quadrate = upper end of mandibular M, Mandibular arch. arch . o.a, Occipital arch. tr, Trabecula . ot, Auditory See also:capsule . The palato-pterygoid See also:bar (p.pt) is represented by a faint vestige which disappears before the stage figured . developed out of a pair of lateral cartilaginous rods—the Ira-beelike email—and a parachordal portion lying on either side of the anterior end of the notochord . This arises in development r For development cf . Gaupp in Hertwig's Handbuch der Entwickelungslelste . ICHTHYOLOGY 259 from a cartilaginous rod (parachordal cartilage) lying on each side of the notochord and possibly representing a fused row of dorsal arcualia . The originally separate parachordals and trabeculae become connected to form a trough-like, primitive cranium, complete or nearly so laterally and ventrally but open dorsally . With the primitive cranium there are also connected cartilaginous capsules developed round the olfactory and auditory organs . There also become fused with the hinder After W . K . Parker, Trans . Zool . Soc . London . At After Gegenbaur, Unlersurhungen zur verg . Anal. der Wirbelliere, by permission 3f Wilhelm Engelmann . After Hubrecht, Brown's Tierreich, by permission of Gustav Fischer . Br.A, Branchial arches. off, Olfactory capsule . r.h, Ceratohyal. ot, Auditory capsule . p.l, Ethmopalatine See also:ligament. p.pt, Palato-pterygoid bar . Hm, Hyomandibular. p.s.l, Prespiracular ligament . M, Meckel's cartilage. r Rostrum . o, See also:Orbit . .0 end of the cranium a varying number of originally distinct neural arches . (C) Visceral Arches.—The skeleton of the visceral arches consists essentially of a series of half-hoops of cartilage, each divided in the adult into a number of segments and connected with its :ellow by a median ventral cartilage . The skeleton of arches I. and II . (mandibular and hyoidean) undergoes modifications of special interest (figs . 14 and 15) . The lower portion of the mandibular arch becomes greatly thickened to support the lower or hinder edge of the mouth . It forms the primitive lower jaw or " Meckel's cartilage." Dorsal to this an outgrowth arises from the anterior face of the arch which supports the upper or anterior margin of the mouth: it is the primitive upper jaw or palato-pterygoquadrate cartilage . The portion of the arch dorsal to the palato-pterygo-quadrate outgrowth may form the suspensorial apparatus of the lower jaw, being fused with the cranium at its upper end . This relatively primitive con-arrangement (protostylic, as it may be termed) occurs in Dipneusti among fishes (cf. fig . 14) . More usually this dorsal part of the mandibular arch becomes reduced, its place being occupied by a ligament (prespiracular) uniting the jaw apparatus to the chondrocranium, the upper jaw being also attached to the chondrocranium by the ethmopalatine ligament situated more anteriorly . The main See also:attachment, how-ever, of the jaws to the chondrocranium in such a case, as holds for the majority of fishes, is through the enlarged dorsal segment of the hyoid arch (hyomandibular) which articulates at its dorsal end with the chondrocranium, while its ventral end is attached to the See also:hinge region of the jaw by stout ligatnentous bands . A skull in which the jaws are suspended in this manner is termed a hyostylic skull (e.g . Scyllium in fig . 15) . In Notidanus (fig . 15, B) there is a large direct See also:articulation of the upper jaw to the chondrocranium in addition to the indirect one through the hyomandibular: such a skull is anlphistylic . In Heterodontus the upper jaw is firmly See also:bound to the cranium throughout its length, while in Holocephali (fig . 15, C) complete fusion has taken place, so that the lower jaw appears to articulate directly with the cranium (" auto stylic " condition) . In Dipneusti' (Lepidosiren and Protopterus) the cartilaginous upper jaw never develops (except in its hinder quadrate portion) beyond the condition of a faint rudiment, owing doubtless to its being replaced functionally by precociously developed See also:bone . (D) A ppendicular Skeleton.—The skeleton of the free part. of the limb is attached to of Ceratodus. the limb See also:girdle which lies embedded in the musculature of the body . Each limb girdle is probably to be looked upon as consisting, like the skeleton of the visceral arches, of a pair of lateral half-hoops of cartilage . While in Pleuracanthus the lateral halves are distinct (and segmented like the branchial arches), in living Selachians generally the two halves are completely fused ventrally with one another . The part, of the girdle lying dorsal to the articulation of the limb is termed scapular in the case of the pectoral limb, iliac in the case of the pelvic, while the a ventral portions are known respectively as coracoid and ischio-pubic . In most Teleostomes the primitive pelvic girdle does not i develop; in the Dipneusti it is ' represented by a median unpaired cartilage . The skeleton of the free limb is probably seen in its most. archaic form amongst existing fishes in the biserial FIG . 17.—a, skeleton of pee. archipterygium of Ceratodus toral limb of Pleuracanthus . (From (fig . 14) . This is indicated by Gegenbaur, after Fritsch.) b, the relative predominance of Skeleton of pectoral limb of this type of fin amongst the `4canthias . (After Gegenbaur.) geologically more ancient fishes . The biserial archipterygium consists of a segmented axial rod, bearing a praeaxial and a postaxial series of jointed rays . In Protopterus and Lepidosiren the limbs are reduced and the lateral rays have less (Protopterus) or more (Lepidosiren) completely disappeared . b 1 Cf . W . E . Agar, Trans . Roy . Soc . Edin. xlv . (1906), 49 . In such an archaic Selachian as Pleuracanthus the fin is clearly of the biserial archipterygial type, but the lateral rays are reduced (pectoral) or absent (pelvic) (fig . 17, a) on one side of the axis . In a typical adult Selachian the pectoral fin skeleton b From Budgett, Trans, Zool . Soc . London, xvi, part vii . From Wiedersheim's Verg . Anat. der Wirbeltiere, by permission of Gustav Fischer . has little apparent resemblance to the biserial archipterygium- the numerous outwardly directed rays springing from a series of large basal cartilages (pro-, See also:mesa- and See also:meta-pterygium) . The condition in the young (e.g. fig . 17, b, Acanthias) hints strongly, however, at the possibility of the fin skeleton being really a modified biserial archiptery- gium, and that the basal cartilages represent the greatly enlarged axis which has become fixed back along the side of the body . In Crossopterygians (Polypterus) the highly From Wiedersheim's peculiar fin skeleton (fig . 18) while still in Verg . Anat. der Wirbel- the embryonic cartilaginous stage is clearly by permission of Y Gustav Fischer. referable to a similar condition . In the skeleton . The axis becomes particularly reduced, and the fin comes to be attached directly to the pectoral girdle by a number of basal pieces (Teleosts) probably representing vestigial rays (cf. fig . 19) . Views on the general morphology of the fin skeleton are strongly affected by the view held as to the mode of evolution of the fins . By upholders of the lateral fold See also:hypothesis the type of fin skeleton described for Ciadoselache' is regarded as particularly primitive . It is, however, by no means clear that the obscure basal structures figured (Fig . 20) in this fin do not really represent the pressed back axis as in Pleuracanthus . The pelvic fin skeleton, while built obviously on the same See also:plan as the pectoral, is liable to much modification and frequently degeneration . Osseous or Bony Skeleton.—The most ancient type of bony skeleton appears to be represented in the placoid elements such as are seen in the skin of the Sela- chian (fig . 21) . j, I r Each placoid element consists of a spine with a broadly expanded base embedded in the dermis . The base is composed of bone: the spine From Bashford Dean, Mem . FIG . 21 . —Placoid of the somewhat V.Y . Acad. of Science. elements of a male modified bone P la . c t oral Fin of Cladose- clavata . Ensheathing the tip of the spine is a layer of extremely hard enamel formed by the inner surface of the ectoderm which originally covered it . Such typical placoid Bashford Dean, Journ . Morph. ix . (1894) 87, and Trans . New York Acad . &i. xiii . (1894) 115.scales are well seen on any ordinary skate . In the groups of fishes above the Selachians, the coating of placoid elements shows various modifications . The spines disappear, though they may be present for a time in early development . The bony basal plates tend to undergo fusion--in certain cases they form a continuous bony See also:cuirass (various Siluroids, trunk-fishes) formed of large plates jointed together at their edges . More usually the plates are small and regular in size . In Crossopterygians and Lepidosteus and in many extinct forms the scales are of the ganoid type, being rhomboidal and having their outer layer composed of hard glistening ganoine . In other Teleostomes the scales are as a rule thin, rounded and overlapping—the so-called cycloid type (fig . 22, A); where the posterior edge shows toothlike projections the See also:scale is termed ctenoid (fig . 22, B) . In various Teleosts the scales are vestigial (eel); in others (as in most electric fishes) they have completely disappeared . Teel/I.—Certain of the placoid elements belonging to that part of the skin which gives rise to the lining of the stomodaeum have their spines enlarged or otherwise modified to form See also:teeth . In the majority of fishes these remain simple, conical structures: in some of the larger sharks (Carcharodon) they become flattened into trenchant See also:blades with serrated edges: in certain rays (Myliobatis) they form a See also:pavement of flattened plates suited for crushing molluscan shells . In the young Neoceratodus2 Ctenoid Scale of Lethrinus (magn.) . there are numerous small conical teeth, the bases of which become connected by a kind of spongework of bony trabeculae . As development goes on a large basal mass is formed which becomes the functional tooth plate of the adult, the Original separate denticles disappearing completely . In the other two surviving Dipnoans, similar large teeth exist, though here there is no longer trace in ontogeny of their formation by the basal fusion of originally separate denticles . In the Selachians the bony skeleton is restricted to the placoid elements . In the Teleostomes and the Dipnoans the original cartilaginous skeleton becomes to a great extent unsheathed or replaced by bony tissue . It seems highly probable that the more deeply seated osseous elements occurring in these as in the higher groups arose in the course of evolution by the spreading inwards of bony trabeculae from the bases of the placoid elements . Such a method has been demonstrated as occurring in individual development in the case of certain of the more superficially placed bones ? The placoid element with its cap of enamel secreted by the ectoderm is probably originally derived from a local thickening of the See also:basement membrane which with the external cuticle may be looked on as the most ancient skeletal structure in the Metazoa . The basal plate appears to have been a later development than the spine; to the palaeozoic Coelolepidae 4 the basal plate is apparently not yet developed . Only a brief See also:summary can be given here of the leading features in the See also:osteology of fishes . Care must be taken not to assume that bony elements bearing the same name in fishes and in other groups, or even in the various sub-divisions of the fishes, are necessarily strictly homologous . In all probability bony elements occupying similar positions and described by the same anatomical R . Semon, Zool . Forschungsreisen, Band i . § 115 . ' O . Hertwig, Arch. mikr . Anal. xi . (1874) . 4 R . H . Traquair, Trans . Roy . Soc . Edin. xxxix . (1899) . name have been evolved independently from the ancestral covering of placoid elements . Teleostei.—It will be convenient to take as the basis of our description the bony skeleton of such a Teleostean fish as the salmon . In the vertebral column all the cartilaginous elements are replaced by bone . The haemal spines of the turned-up tip of the tail are flattened (hypural bones) and serve to support the caudal fin rays . In Argyropelecus and in one or two deep-sea forms the vertebral column remains cartilaginous . Apart from the ossification of the radialia which takes place in the adults of bony fishes there exist special supporting structures in the fins (paired as well as median) of all the gnathostomatous fishes and apparently in nature See also:independent of the cartilaginous skeleton . These are known as dermal fin-rays.' Morphologically they are probably to be looked on (like placoid elements) as local exaggerations of the base- ment membrane . In their detailed characters two main types of dermal fin-ray may be recognized . The first of these are horny unjointed rays and occur in the fins of Selachians and at the edge of the fins of Teleostomes (well seen in the small pos- terior dorsal or " adipose " fin, particularly in Siluroids) . The second type of dermal fin-ray is originally arranged in pairs and forms the From Parker & Has- main supports of the fin in the adult Teleost See also:hell's Text-See also:book of (fig . 23) . The members of each pair are in zoology, by permission close contact except proximally where they of ., Ltd . Macmillan & Co., separate and embrace the tip of one of the Fio . 23.-One of radialia . The fin-rays of this second type are the radialia of the frequently branched and jointed: in other cases salmon, consisting thIn fthe anglernor fishing-See also:frog (Lophius) the of three segments, ptg', pte, See also:pie, and anterior rays of the dorsal fin become greatl y supporting a der- elongated to form small fishing rods, from mal fin ray D.F.R. which depend bait-like lures for the attraction of its See also:prey . In the skull of the adult salmon it is seen that certain parts of the chondrocranium (fig . 24) have been replaced by bone (" cartilage bones ") while other more superficially placed bones (" membrane bones ") See also:cover its surface (fig . 25) . Of cartilage bones four are developed round the foramen magnum—the basioccipital, supraoccipital and two exoccipitals . In front of .phot fT From Wiedersheim, 1'erg . Anat. der IVirbeltiere, by permission of Gustav Fischer . alsp/t, Alisphenoid. orbsph, Orbitosphenoid . basocc, Basioccipital. See also:proof, Prootic . ekteth, Lateral ethmoid. psph, Parasphenoid . epiot, Epiotic. ptero, Pterotic . exocc, Exoccipital. socc, Supra occipital . fr, Frontal. sphot, Sphenotic . opisth, Opisthotic. vo, Vomer . the basioccipital is the basisphenoid with an alisphenoid on each side . The region (presphenoidal) immediately in front of the basisphenoid is unossified, but on each side of it an orbitosphenoid is developed, the two orbitosphenoids being closely approximated in the mesial See also:plane and to a certain extent fused, forming the upper part of the interorbital septum . In the anterior or ethmoidal portion of the cranium the only cartilage bones arc a ' Cf . E . S . See also:Goodrich, Quart . Joartt . Micr . Sri. xlvii . (1904), 465 . pair of lateral ethmoids lying at the anterior boundary of the orbit . A series of five distinct elements are ossified in the wall of the auditory or otic capsule, the prootic and opisthotic more ventrally, and the sphenotic, pterotic and epiotic more dorsally . The roof of the cranium is covered in by the following dermal bones—parietals (on each side of the supraoccipital), frontals, dermal ethmoid and small nasals, one over each olfactory organ . The floor of the cranium on its oral aspect is ensheathed by the large parasphenoid and the smaller vomer in front of and over-lapping it . The cartilaginous lower jaw is ossified posteriorly to form the articular (fig . 25) with a small membrane bone, the angular, ventral to it, but the main part of the jaw is replaced functionally by a large membrane bone which ensheaths it—the dentary—evolved in all probability by the spreading out-wards of bony tissue from the bases of the placoid elements (teeth) which it bears . The original upper jaw (palato-pterygoid bar) is replaced by a See also:chain of bones—See also:palatine in front, then See also:art, Articular. branchiost, Branchiostegal . dent, Dentary . epiot, Epiotic . eth, Dermal ethmoid . fr, Frontal . hyom, Hyomandibular. intop, Interopercular . See also:Jug, Jugal . mpt, Mesopterygoid. mtpt, Metapterygoid . mx, Maxilla . ruts, Nasal . pterygoid and mesopterygoid, and posteriorly metapterygoid and quadrate, the latter giving articulation to the articular bone of the lower jaw . These representatives of the palatopterygoid bar no longer form the functional upper jaw . This function is performed by membrane bones which have appeared external to the palatopterygoid bar—the premaxilla and maxilla--which carry teeth—and the small scale-like jugal behind them . The quadrate is suspended from the skull as in the Selachians (hyostylic skull) by the upper portion of the hyoid arch—here represented by two bones—the hyomandibular and symplectic . The ventral portion of the hyoid arch is also represented by a chain of bones (stylohyal, epihyal, ceratohyal, hypohyal and the ventral unpaired basihyal), as is also each of the five branchial arches behind it . In addition to the bony elements belonging to the hyoid arch proper a series of membrane bones support the opercular flap . Ventrally there project backwards from the ceratohyal a series of ten overlapping branchiostegal rays, while more dorsally are the broader interopercular, subopercular and opercular . In addition to the bones already enumerated there is present a ring of circumorbital bones, a preopercular, behind and external to the hyomandibular and quadrate, and squamosal, external to the hinder end of the auditory capsule . nas ^Abl m~~ .~,rl bmnchiost dent air' See also:pare r From Wiedersheim, Fug . Anat. der IVirbelliere, by permission of Gustav Fischer, AF.R ekfefh op, Opercular . See also:pal, Palatine . par, Parietal. pmx, Premaxilla. preop, Preopercular . pt, Pterygoid . See also:pier, Pterotic . Quad, Quadrate . socc, Supraoccipital. sphot, Sphenotic. subop, Subopercular. sympl, Symplectic . Zunge, Tongue . In the salmon, See also:pike, and various other Teleosts,, extensive regions of the chondrocranium persist in the adult, while in others (e.g. the cod) the replacement by bone is practically complete . Bony elements may be developed in addition to those noticed in the salmon . In the sturgeon the chondrocranium is ensheathed by numerous membrane bones, but cartilage bones are absent . In the Crossopterygians' the chondrocranium persists to a great extent in the adult, but portions of it are replaced by cartilage bones—the most interesting being a large sphenethmoid like that of the frog . Numerous membrane bones cover the chondrocranium externally . In the Dipneusti' the chondrocranium is strengthened in the adult by numerous bones . One of the most characteristic is the great palatopterygoid bone which develops very early by the spreading of ossification backwards from the tooth bases, and whose early development probably accounts for the non-development of the palatopterygoid cartilage . A ppendicular Skeleton.—The primitive pectoral girdle, which in the Dipneusti is strengthened by a sheath of bone, becomes in the Teleostomes reduced in size (small scapula and coracoid bones) and replaced functionally by a secondary See also:shoulder girdle formed of superficially placed membrane bones (supraclavicular and cleithrum or " clavicle," with, in addition in certain cases, an infraclavicular and one or two postclavicular elements), and connected at its dorsal end with the skull by a post-temporal bone . The pelvic girdle is in Teleostomes completely absent as a rule . The skeleton of the free limb undergoes ossification to a less or greater extent in the Teleostomes . In Polypterus the pectoral fin (fig . 18, B) shows three ossifications in the basal part of the fin—pro-, meso- and metapterygium . Of these the metapterygium probably represents the ossified skeletal axis: while the propterygium and also the numerous diverging radials probably represent the lateral rays of one side of the archipterygium . In the Teleostomes the place of the pelvic girdle is taken functionally by an element apparently formed by the fusion of the basal portions of several radials . Vascular System.—The main components of the blood vascular system in the lower vertebrates are the following: (r) a single or double dorsal aorta lying between the enteron and notochord; (a) a ventral vessel lying beneath the enteron; and (3) a series of paired hoop-like aortic arches connecting dorsal and ventral vessels round the sides of the pharynx . The blood-stream passes forwards towards the head in the ventral vessel, dorsalwards through the aortic arches, and tailwards in the dorsal aorta . The dorsal aorta is single throughout the greater part of its extent, but for a greater or less extent at its anterior end (circulus cephalicus) it consists of two paired aortic roots . It is impossible to say whether the paired or the unpaired condition is the more primitive, general morphological conditions being in favour of the latter, while embryological evidence rather supports the former . The dorsal aorta, which receives its highly oxygenated blood from the aortic arches, is the main artery for the distribution of this oxygenated blood . Anteriorly the aortic roots are continued forwards as the dorsal See also:carotid arteries to supply the head region . A series of paired, segmentally-arranged arteries pass from the dorsal aorta to supply the muscular body wall, and the branches which supply the pectoral and pelvic fins (subclavian or brachial artery, and iliac artery) are probably specially enlarged members of this series of segmental vessels . Besides these paired vessels a varying number of unpaired branches pass from dorsal aorta to the wall of the alimentary canal with its glandular diverticula (coeliac, mesenteric, rectal) . The ventral vessel undergoes complicated changes and is represented in the adults of existing fishes by a series of important structures . Its post-anal portion comes with the atrophy of the post-anal gut to lie close under the caudal portion of the dorsal aorta and is known as the caudal vein . This assumes a secondary connexion with, and drains its blood into, the posterior cardinal See also:veins (see below) . In the region between cloaca and liver the ventral vessel becomes much branched or even reticular and ' R . H . Traquair, Journ . Anat . Phys. v . (1871) 166; J . S.Budgett, Trans . Zool . Soc . Lond. xvi . 315 . ' T . W . Bridge, Trans . Zool . Soc . Lond. xiv . (1898) 35o; W . E . Agar, op. cit.serving to convey the food-laden blood from the wall of the enteron to the capillary network of the liver—is known as the hepatic portal vein . The short section in front of the liver is known as the hepatic vein and this conveys the blood, which has been treated by the liver, into a section of the ventral vessel, which has become highly muscular and is rhythmically contractile . This enlarged muscular portion, in which the contractility—probably once common to the main vessels throughout their extent—has become concentrated, serves as a See also:pump and is known as the heart . Finally the precardiac section of the ventral vessel—the ventral aorta—conveys the blood from heart to aortic arches . In addition to the vessels mentioned a large paired vein is developed in close relation to the renal organ which it serves to drain . This is the posterior cardinal . An anterior prolongation (anterior cardinal) serves to drain the blood from the head region . From the point of junction of anterior and posterior cardinal a large transverse vessel leads to the heart (ductus Cuvieri) . Heart.—Originally a simple tube curved into a somewhat S-shape, the heart, by enlargements, constrictions and fusions of its parts, becomes converted into the complex, compact heart of the adult . In this we recognize the following portions—(I) Sinus venosus, (a) Atrium, (3) Ventricle . A See also:fourth chamber, the conus arteriosus, the enlarged and contractile hinder end of the ventral aorta, is also physiologically a part of the heart . The sinus venosus receives the blood from the great veins (ductus Cuvieri and hepatic veins) . It—like the atrium which it enters by an opening guarded by two lateral valves—has thin though contractile walls . The atrium is as a rule single, but in the Dipnoans, in correlation with 'the' importance of their pulmonary breathing, it is incompletely divided into a right and a left See also:auricle . In Neoceratodus the incomplete divician is effected by the presence of a longitudinal shelf projecting into the atrial cavity from its posterior wall . The opening of the sinus venosus is to the right of this See also:shell, that of the pulmonary vein to the left . In Prototerus and Lepidosiren a nearly complete septum is formed by the fusion of trabeculae, there being only a minute opening in it posteriorly . The atrium opens by a wide opening guarded by two or more flap valves provided with chordae tendineae into the ventricle . The ventricle, in correspondence with it being the main pumping apparatus, has its walls much thickened by the development of muscular trabeculae which, in the lower forms separated by wide spaces in which most of the blood is contained, become in the Teleostomes so enlarged as to give the wall a compact character, the spaces being reduced to small scattered openings on its inner surface . In the Dipnoans the ventricle, like the atrium, is incompletely divided into a right and left ventricle . In Ceratodus this is effected by an extension of the interauricular shelf into the ventricle . In Lepidosiren the separation of the` two ventricles is complete but for a small perforation anteriorly, the heart in this respect showing a closer approximation to the condition in the higher vertebrates than is found in any Amphibians or in any reptiles except the Crocodilia . The conus arteriosus is of interest from the valvular arrangements in its interior to prevent regurgitation of blood from ventral aorta into ventricle . In their simplest condition, as seen e.g. in an embryonic Selachian, these arrangements consist of three, four or more prominent longitudinal ridges projecting into the lumen of the conus, and serving to obliterate the lumen when jammed From Boas, Lehrbuch der Zoohgie, by per-mission of Gustav Fischer, a, Atrium . b.a, Bulbus aortae . c.a, Conus arteriosus . s.v, Sinus venosus . v, v', Valves . v.a, Ventral aorta . vt, Ventricle . together by the systole of the conus . As development goes on bular) and second (hyoidean) undergoing atrophy to a less or each of these ridges becomes segmented into a row of pocket valves with their openings directed. anteriorly so that regurgitation causes them to open out and occlude the lumen by their free edges See also:meeting . Amongst the Teleostomes the lower ganoids show a similar development of longitudinal rows of valves in the conus . In Amia (f'g.26y B), however, the conus is shortened i j v and the number of valves in each ,ac longitudinal row is much reduced . This leads to the condition found sb.v in the Teleosts (fig . 26, 0), where ( practically all trace of the conus has r f disappeared, a single circle of valves representing a last survivor of each row,(See also:save in a few exceptional cases, e.g . •Albula, Tarpon, Osteoglossum, where two valves of each row are C present) . E...P.c. v In front of the coins vestige of the Teleost there is' present a thick walled bulbus aortae differing from the conus in not being rhythmically contractile, C`;ov. v its walls being on the contrary richly [ provided with elastic tissue . Thee Dipnoansi show an im- portant advance in the conus as in atriunl ;an veitricle . The conus has a + b'ariecteristic spiral twist . [•,.ov v Within it 1(eoceratbdus are a IIumber of longtitudinal rows of _k pocket valves . One. of these rows is' marked out by the very large size of its valves and by the fact F"rp v that they are not distinct from' one another but even in the adult form a continuous, spirally - See also:running, longitudinal fold . This ridge pro- jecting into the lumen of the conus C.v7f divides it incompletely into two After See also:Newton Parker, from Trans. channels; the one beginning (i.e. at of the Royal Irish See also:Academy, vol. See also:xxx. its hinder end) on the left side and Fin . 27: Venous System din front ventr¢ll the other of Protopterus, as seen from en g y, ventral side. beginning g on the right and ending a, Atrium. dorsally . In Protopterus a similar ac, Anterior cardinal. condition occurs, only in the front an.v; Anastomotic vein. end of the conus a second spiral c, Intestine . c.v, Caudal vein. fold is present opposite the first f.v, Femoral vein. and, meeting this, completes the ib Gall-bladder. division of the conus cavity into .v, Hepatic vein. two separate parts . The rows of i.j.v, Inferior jugular vein . i.v.c, Posterior vena cava . Pocket valves which do not enter k, Kidney. into the formation of the spiral 1, Liver. folds are here greatly reduced . See also:oval, Ovarian veins . These arrangements in the conus p, Pericardium . p.c.v, Left posterior cardinal. of the Dipnoans are of the highest p.v', Parietal veins. morphological interest, pointing in r.p.v, Renal portal. an unmistakable way towards the s, Stomach. condition found in the higher lung- s.b.v, Subclavian . breathing vertebrates . Of the two cavities into which the conus is partially divided in the Dipneusti the one which begins posteriorly on the right receives the (venous) blood from the right side of the heart,, and ending up anteriorly dorsal to the other cavity communicates only with aortic arches V. and VI . In the higher vertebrates this cavity has become completely split off to form the See also:root of the pulmonary arteries, and a result of aortic arch V. receiving its blood along with the functionally much more important VI . (the pulmonary arch) from this special part of the conus has been the almost complete disappearance of this arch (V.) in all the higher vertebrates . Arterial System.-There are normally six aortic arches laid down corresponding with the visceral arches, the first (mandir J . V . Boas, Morphol . Jahrb. vi . (i88o) . greater extent in post-embryonic life . Where an external gill is present the aortic arch loops out into this, a kind of short-circuiting of the blood-stream taking place as the external gill atrophies . As the walls of the clefts assume their respiratory function the aortic arch becomes broken into a network of capillaries in its respiratory portion; and there is now distinguished a ventral afferent and a dorsal efferent portion of each arch . Complicated developmental changes, into which it is unnecessary to enter,2 may lead to each efferent vessel draining the two sides of a single cleft instead of the adjacent walls of two clefts as it does primitively . In the Crossopterygians and Dipnoans as in the higher vertebrates the sixth aortic arch gives off the pulmonary artery to the lung . Among the Actinopterygians this, probably primitive, blood-supply to the lung (swim-bladder) persists only in Amia . Venous System.—The most interesting variations from the general plan outlined have to do with the arrangements of the posterior cardinals . In the Selachians these are in their anterior portion wide and sinus-like, while in the region of the kidney they become broken into a sinusoidal network supplied by the postrenal portion now known as the renal portal vein . In the Teleostomes the See also:chief noteworthy feature is the tendency to asymmetry, the right posterior cardinal being frequently considerably larger than the left and connected with it by transverse anastomotic vessels, the result being that most of the blood from the two kidneys passes forwards by the right -posterior 'cardinal . The Dipnoans (fig . 27) show a similar asymmetry, but here the anterior end of the right posterior cardinal disappears, being replaced functionally by a new vessel which conveys the blood from the right posterior cardinal direct to the sinus venosus instead of to the outer end of the ductus Cuvieri . This new vessel is the posterior vena cava which thus in the series of vertebrates appears for the first time in the Dipneusti . Pulmonary Veins.—In Polypterus (fig . 28) the blood is drained from the lungs by a pulmonary vein on each side which unites in front with its fellow and opens into the great hepatic vein behind the heart . In the Dipnoans the conjoined pulmonary veins open directly into the left section of the atrium as in higher forms . In the Actinopterygians with their specialized air-bladder the blood passes to the heart via posterior cardinals, or hepatic portal, or—a probably more primitive condition—directly into the left ductus Cuvieri (Amia) . Lymphatics.—More or less irregular lymphatic spaces occur in the fishes as elsewhere and, as in the Amphibia, localized muscular developments are present forming See also:lymph See also:hearts . Central Nervous System.—The neural tube shows in very early stages an anterior dilated portion which forms the rudiment of the brain in contradistinction to the hinder, narrower part which forms the spinal cord . This enlargement of the brain is correlated with the increasing predominance of the nerve 2 Cf . F . See also:Hochstetter in O . Hertwig Handbuch der Entwickelungslehre . a.c.v, Anterior cardinal vein. d.C, Ductus Cuvieri . h.v, Hepatic vein . i.j.v, Inferior jugular vein. ir.v, Inter-renal vein . l.v, Lateral cutaneous vein. p.c.v, Posterior cardinal vein. p.n, Pronephros . p.v, Pulmonary vein . s, Subclavian vein . s.v, Sinus venosus . th, Thyroid . v, Vein from pharyngeal wall . * Anterior portion of left posterior cardinal vein . centres at the anterior end of the body which tend to assume more and more complete'See also:control over those lying behind . Spinal Cord.—A remarkable peculiarity occurs in the See also:sun fishes (Molidae), where the body is greatly shortened and where the spinal cord undergoes a corresponding See also:abbreviation so as to be actually shorter than the brain . Brain.—It is customary to divide the brain into three main regions, fore-, mid-, and hind-brain, as in the most See also:familiar vertebrates there is frequently seen in the embryo a division of the primitive brain dilatation into three vesicles lying one behind the other . A consideration of the development of the brain in the various main groups of vertebrates shows that these divisions are not of equal importance . In those archaic groups where the See also:egg is not encumbered by the presence of a large mass of yolk it is usual for the brain to show in its early stages a division into two main regions which we may term the primitive fore-brain or cerebrum and the primitive hind-brain or rhombencephalon . Only later does the hinder part of the primitive fore-brain become marked off as mid-brain . In the fully developed brain it is customary to recognize the series of regions indicated below, though the boundaries between these regions are not mathematical lines or surfaces any more than are any other biological boundaries: Myelencephalon (Medulla oblon-Rhombencephalon (Hind-brain) gata) . Metencephalon (Cerebellum) . Mesencephalon (Mid-brain) . Cerebrum (Primitive Fore-brain) Thalamencephalon(Diencephalon) . [Hemispheres (Telencephalon).] The myelencephalon or medulla oblongata calls for no special remark, except that in the case of Torpedo there is a special upward bulging of its floor on each side of the middle line forming the electric lobe and containing the See also:nucleus of origin of the nerves to the electric organ . The cerebellum occurs in its simplest form in lampreys and Dipnoans (fig . 29, C), where it forms a. simple band-like thickening of the anterior end of the roof of the hind-brain . In Selachians A and B from Wiedersheim, by permission of Gustav Fischer . m.b, Roof of mid-brain, optic lobes, tectum opticum. o.1, Olfactory lobe . IV.v, Fourth ventricle . it is very large and bulges upwards, forming a conspicuous organ in a dorsal view of the brain (fig . 29, A) . In Teleosts (fig . 29, B) the cerebellum is also large . It projects back as a great tongue-like structure over the roof of the fourth ventricle, while in front it dips downwards. and projects under the roof of the mid-brain forming a highly characteristic valvula cerebelli . A valvula cerebelli occurs also in ganoids, while in the Crossopterygians a similar extension of the cerebellum projects backwards into the IV. ventricle or cavity of the hind-brain (fig . 30) . The mesencephalon is a conspicuous structure in the fishes from its greatly developed roof (tectum opticum) which receives the end pencils of the optic nerve . Normally it projects upwards as a pair of large optic lobes, but in the Dipnoans (fig . 29, C) the lateral thickening is not sufficiently great to cause obvious lateral swellings in external view . The thalamencephalon is one of the most interesting parts of the brain from its remarkable uniformity throughout the Vertebrata . Even in Amphioxus the appearance of a sagittal section strongly suggests vestiges of a once present thalamencephalon.' The roof—like that of the myelencephalon—remains c y See also:tic gh . ~ . See also:tar . J5all . 1 a.c, Anterior commissure. par, Paraphysis . cer, Cerebellum. See also:pin, Pineal body . d.s, Dorsal sac. p.c, Posterior commissure . g.h, Habenular ganglion. s.v, Saccus vasculosus . h.c, Habenular commissure . Lo, Tectum opticum . i.g, Infundibular gland. v.III, Third ventricle . l.p, Lateral plexus. v.IV, Fourth ventricle . o.c, Optic chiasma. vel, Velum transversum . See also:pall, See also:Pallium . to a great extent membranous, forming with the closely applied pia mater a vascular roof to the III. ventricle . Frequently a transverse fold of the roof dips down into the III. ventricle forming the velum transversum (fig . 30) . The side walls of the thalamencephalon are greatly thickened forming the thalamus (epithalamus and hypothalamus), while a ganglionic thickening of the roof posteriorly on each side forms the ganglia habenulae which receive olfactory See also:fibres from the base of the hemisphere . The habenular ganglia are unusually large in the lampreys and are here strongly asymmetrical, the right being the larger . The floor of the thalamencephalon projects downwards and backwards as the infundibulum . The side walls of this are thickened to form characteristic lobi inferiores, while the blind end develops glandular outgrowths (infundibular gland, fig . 30) overlaid by a rich development of blood sinuses and forming with them the saccus vasculosus . The optic chiasma, where present, is involved in the floor of the thalamencephalon ai d forms a large, upwardly-projecting ridge . Farther forwards on the floor or anterior wall is the anterior commissure (see below) . Passing forwards from the mid-brain (cf. fig . 3o) a series of interesting structures are found connected with the roof of the primitive fore-brain, viz.—posterior commissure (See also:intercalary region), pineal organ, habenular commissure with anterior parietal organ, dorsal sac (=pineal See also:cushion), velum transversum, paraphysis . The posterior commissure is situated in the boundary between thalamencephalon and mid-brain . It is formed of 'C. v . Kupffer, Studien z. vergl . Entwickelungsgeschichte der Cranioten . A B C zg cer, Cerebellum . c.h, Cerebral hemisphere . th, Thalamencephalon . f.b, Primitive fore-brain (in B the line points to the thickened wall of the fore-brain, the so-called " basal ganglia ") . fibres connecting up the right and left sides of the tectum opticum (?) . The habenular or See also:superior commissure situated farther forwards connects the two ganglia habenulae . In the immediate neighbourhood of these ganglia there project upwards two diverticula of the brain-roof known as the pineal organ and the parapineal (or anterior parietal) organ . The special interest of these organs 1 lies in the fact that in certain vertebrates one (parapineal in See also:Sphenodon and in lizards) or both (Petromyzon) exhibit histological features which show that they must be looked on as visual organs or eyes . In gnathostomatous fishes they do not show any definite eye-like structure, but in certain cases (Polyodon, Callichthys, &c.) the bony plates of the skull-roof are discontinuous over the pineal organ forming a definite parietal foramen such as exists in lizards where the eye-like structure is distinct . It is also usual to find in the epithelial wall of the pineal organ columnar cells which show See also:club-shaped ends projecting into the lumen (exactly as in the young visual cells of the retina =) and are prolonged into a root-like process at the other end . Definite nerve fibres pass down from these parietal organs to the brain . It is stated that the fibres from the pineal organ pass into the posterior commissure, those of the parapineal organ into the habenular commissure . The facts mentioned render it difficult to avoid the conclusion that these organs either have been sensory or are sensory . Possibly they represent the degenerate and altered vestiges of eye-like organs present in archaic vertebrates, or it may be that they represent the remains of organs not eye-like in function but which for some other reason See also:lay close under the surface of the body . It would seem natural that a diverticulum of brain-tissue exposed to the influence of light-rays should exhibit the same reaction as is shown frequently elsewhere in the animal See also:kingdom and tend to assume secondarily the characters of a visual organ . The presence of the rod-like features in the epithelial cells is perhaps in favour of the latter view . In evolution we should expect these to appear before the See also:camera-like structure of a highly developed eye, while in the process of degeneration we should expect these fine histological characters to go first . Selachians.—No parapineal organ is present . The pineal body (except in Torpedo where it is absent) is in the form of a long slender tube ending in front in a dilated bulb lying near the front end of the brain in close contact with, or enclosed in, a definite foramen in the cranial roof . Holocephali and Crossopterygii.—Here also the pineal body is long and tubular: at its origin it passes dorsalwards or slightly backwards behind the large dorsal sac . Actinopterygian Ganoids resemble Selachians on the whole . In Arnie a parapineal organ is present, and it is said to lie towards the left side and to be connected by a thick nerve with the left habenular ganglion (cf . Petromyzon, article CYCLOSTOMATA) . This is adduced to support the view that the pineal and parapineal bodies represent originally paired structures . Teleostei.—A parapineal rudiment appears in the embryo of some forms, but in the adult only the pineal organ is known to exist . This is usually short and club-shaped, its terminal part with much folded wall and glandular in character . In a few cases a parietal foramen occurs (Callichthys, Loricaria, &c.) . Dipneusti.—The pineal organ is short and simple . No parapineal organ is developed . The dorsal sac is formed by that part of the roof of the thalamencephalon lying between the habenular commissure and the region of the velum . In some cases a longitudinal groove is present in which the pineal organ lies (Dipneusti) . In the Crossopterygians the dorsal sac is particularly large and was formerly mistaken for the pineal organ . The velum transvcrsum is a transverse, inwardly-projecting fold of the roof of the primitive fore-brain in front of the dorsal sac . To those morphologists who regard the hemisphere region or telencephalon as a primitively unpaired structure the velum is an important landmark indicating the posterior limit of the telencephalon . Those who hold the view taken in this article r Cf . F . K . Studnicka's excellent account of the parietal organs in A . See also:Oppel's Lehrbuch vergl. mikr . Anatomie, T. v . (1905) . 2F . K . Studnicka, S.B. bohm . Gesell . (1901); J . Graham Kerr, Quart . Journ . Micr . Sci. vol. xlvi., and The Budgett Memorial Volume.that the hemispheres are to be regarded as paired outpushings of the side wall of the primitive fore-brain attribute less morphological importance to the velum . Physiologically the velum is frequently important from the plexus of blood-vessels which passes with it into the III. ventricle . In Petromyzon and Chimaera the velum is not developed . In Dipnoans there are present in its place paired transverse folds which are probably merely extensions backwards of the lateral plexuses . The Paraphysis is a projection from the roof of the primitive fore-brain near its anterior end . It is well seen in Dipnoans 3 (Lepidosiren and Protopterus) where in the larva (exactly as in the urodele larva) it forms a blindly ending tube sloping upwards and forwards between the two hemispheres . In the adult it becomes mixed with the two lateral plexuses and is liable to be confused with them . In the other groups—except the Teleosts where it is small (See also:Anguilla) or absent (most Teleosts) —the paraphysis is by no means such a definite structure, but generally there is present a more or less branched and divided diverticulum of the brain wall, frequently glandular, which is homologized with the paraphysis . The morphological significance of the paraphysis is uncertain . It may represent the remains of an ancient sense organ, or it may simply represent the last connexion between the brain and the external ectoderm from which it was derived . An important derivative of the primitive fore-brain is seen in the pair of cerebral hemispheres which in the higher vertebrates become of such relatively gigantic dimensions . The hemispheres appear to be primitively associated with the special sense of See also:smell, and they are prolonged anteriorly into a pair of olfactory lobes which come into close relation with the olfactory organ . From a consideration of their adult relations and of their development—particularly in those groups where there is no disturbing See also:factor in the shape of a large yolk sac—it seems probable that the hemispheres are primitively paired outpushings of the lateral wall of the primitive fore-brain'—in order to give increased space for the increased mass of nervous See also:matter associated with the olfactory sense . They are most highly developed in the Dipneusti amongst fishes . They are there (cf. fig . 29, C) of relatively enormous size with thick nervous floor (corpus striatum) and side walls and roof (pallium) surrounding a central cavity (lateral ventricle) which opens into the third ventricle . At the posterior end of the hemisphere a small area of its wall remains thin and membranous, and this becomes pushed into the lateral ventricle by an ingrowth of blood-vessel to form the huge lateral plexus (= plexus hemisphaerium) . In this great size of the hemispheres 1 and also in the presence of a rudimentary cortex in the Dipnoi we see, as in many other features in these fishes, a distinct foreshadowing of conditions occurring in the higher groups of vertebrates . The Cyclostomes possess a distinct though small pair of hemispheres . In the Selachians the relatively archaic Notidanidae 8 possess a pair of thick-walled hemispheres, but in the majority of the members of the group the paired condition is obscured (fig . 29, A) . In the Teleostomes the mass of nervous matter which in other groups forms the hemispheres does not undergo any pushing outwards except as regards the small olfactory lobes . On the contrary, it remains as a great thickening of the lateral wall of the thalamencephalon (the so-called basal ganglia), additional space for which, however, may be obtained by a considerable increase in length of the fore-brain region (cf. fig . 30, A) or by actual involution into the third ventricle (Polypterus) ? The great nervous thickenings of the thalamencephalic wall bulge into its cavity and are covered over by the thin epithelial roof of the thalamencephalon which is as a consequence liable to be confused with the pallium or roof of the hemispheres with which it has nothing to do : the homologue of the pallium 3 J . Graham Kerr, Quart . Journ . Micr . Sci. vol. xlvi . 4F . K . Studnicka, S.B. bohm . Gesell . (toot); J . Graham Kerr, Quart . Journ . Micr . Sci. vol. xlvi., and The Budgett Memorial Volume. s G . Elliot Smith, Anat . Anz . (1907) . 6 F . K . Studnicka, S.B. bohm . Gesell . (1896) . J . Graham Kerr . The Budgett Memorial Volume . as of other parts of the hemisphere is contained within the lateral thickening of the thelamencephalic wall, not in its membranous roof.' Associated with the parts of the fore-brain devoted to the sense of smell (especially the corpora striata) is the important system of bridging fibres forming the anterior commissure which lies near the anterior end of the floor, or in the front wall, of the primitive fore-brain . It is of great interest to See also:note the appearance in the Dipnoans (Lepidosiren and Protopterus) of a corpus callosum (cf. fig . 30 B) lying dorsal to the anterior commissure and composed of fibres connected with the pallial region of the two hemispheres . Sense Organs.—The olfactory organs are of special interest in the Selachians, where each remains through life as a widely-open, saccular involution of the ectoderm which may be pro-longed backwards to the margin of the buccal cavity by an open oronasal groove, thus retaining a condition familiar in the embryo of the higher vertebrates . In Dipnoans the olfactory organ communicates with the roof of the buccal cavity by definite posterior See also:nares as in the higher forms—the communicating passage being doubtless the morphological equivalent of the oronasal groove, although there is no direct embryological evidence for this . In the Teleostomes the olfactory organ varies from a condition of great complexity in the Crossopterygians down to a condition of almost complete atrophy in certain Teleosts (Plectognathi).2 The eyes are usually of large size . The See also:lens is large and spherical and in the case of most Teleostomes See also:accommodation for distant See also:vision is effected by the lens being pulled bodily nearer the retina . This movement is brought about by the contraction of smooth muscle fibres contained in the processus falciformis, a projection from the choroid which terminates in contact with the lens in a swelling, the See also:campanula Halleri . In Amia and in Teleosts a network of capillaries forming the so-called choroid gland surrounds the optic nerve just outside the retina . As a rule the eyes of fishes have a silvery, shining appearance due to the deposition of shining flakes of guanin in the outer layer of the choroid (Argentea) or, in the case of Selachians, in the inner layers (tapetum) . Fishes which inhabit dark recesses, e.g. of caves or of the deep sea, show an enlargement, or, more frequently, a reduction, of the eyes . Certain deep-sea Teleosts possess remarkable telescopic eyes with a curious asymmetrical development of the retina' The otocyst or auditory organ agrees in its main features with that of other vertebrates . In Selachians the otocyst remains in the adult open to the exterior by the ductus endolymphatic2ts . In Squatina 4 this is unusually wide and correlated; with this the calcareous otoconia are replaced by See also:sand-grains from the exterior . In Dipnoans (Lepidosiren and Prolopterus) curious outgrowths arise from the ductus endolymphaticus and come to overlie the roof of the fourth ventricle, recalling the somewhat similar condition met with in certain Amphibians . In various Teleosts the swim-bladder enters into intimate relations with the otocyst . In the simplest condition these relations consist in the prolongation forwards of the swim-bladder as a blindly ending tube on either side, the blind end coming into direct contact either with the wall of the otocyst itself or with the fluid surrounding it (perilymph)..through a See also:gap in the rigid periotic capsule . A wave of See also:compression causing a slight inward movement of the swim-bladder wall will bring about a greatly magnified movement of that part of the wall which is not in relation with the external See also:medium, viz. the part in relation with the interior of the auditory capsule . In this way the See also:perception of delicate sound waves may be rendered much more perfect . In the Ostariophysi (Sagemehl), including the Cyprinidae, the Siluridae, the Characinidae and the Gymnotidae, a physiologically similar connexion between swim-bladder and otocyst is brought about by the intervention of a chain of auditory ossicles (Weberian ossicles) formed by modification of the anterior vertebrae.' ' F . K . Studnicka, S.B. bohm . Gesell . (19o1); J . Graham Kerr, Quart . Journ . Mier . Sci. xlvi., and The Budgelt Memorial Volume . 2 R . Wiedersheim, Kdlliker's Festschrift: cf. also Anat . Ans . (1887) . A . Brauer, Verhandl. deutsch. zool . Gesell . (1902) . C . Stewart, Journ . Linn . Soc . Zool . (1906), 439 . 3 T . W . Bridge and A . C . Haddon, Phil . Trans . 184 (1893) . Lateral Line Organs.'—Epidermal sense buds are scattered about in the ectoderm of fishes . A special arrangement of these in lines along the sides of the body and on the head region form the highly characteristic sense organs of the lateral line system . In Lepidosiren these organs retain their superficial position; in other fishes they become sunk beneath the surface into a groove, which may remain open (some Selachians), but as a rule becomes closed into a tubular channel with openings at intervals . It has been suggested that the function of this system of sense organs is connected with the perception of vibratory disturbances of comparatively large wave length in the surrounding medium . Peripheral Nerves.—In the Cyclostomes the dorsal afferent and ventral efferent nerves are still, as in Amphioxus, independent, but in the gnathostomatous fishes they are, as in the higher vertebrates, combined together into typical spinal nerves . As regards the cranial nerves the chief peculiarities of fishes relate to (1) the persistence of the branchial clefts and (2) the presence of an elaborate system of cutaneous sense organs supplied by a group of nerves (lateralis) connected with a centre in the brain which develops in continuity with that which receives the auditory nerve . These points may be exemplified by the arrangements in Selachians (see fig . 31) . I., II., III., IV. and VI. See also:call for no special remark . Trigeminus (V .) .—The o phthalmicus profundus branch (o p.p.)—which probably is morphologically a distinct cranial nerve /lL v md. ax From Bridge, Cambridge Natural History, vol. vii . "Fishes " (by permission of Macmillan & Co., Ltd.) . After Wiedersheim, Grundriss der vergleichenden Anatomie (by permission of Gustav Fischer) . See also:butt, Buccal. mx, Maxillary . c, Commissure between pre- oc, Occipitospinal . and postauditory parts of ol.o, Olfactory organ . lateralis system. op.p, Ophthalmicus profundus. d.r, Dorsal roots of spinal nerves. op.s, Ophthalmicus superficialis . g.g, Gasserian ganglion. pn, Palatine . gn.g, (Geniculate) ganglion of pq., Pal a t o pt er y go- quadrate VII. cartilage . hy, Hyomandibular. s, Spiracle . l.n.X, Lateralis vagi. st, Supra-temporal branch of m, Motor branches of hy. lateralis system . md, Mandibular. t.a, Lateralis centre in brain . md.ex, External mandibular. v.n, Visceral nerve . mk.c, Meckel's cartilage. v.r, Ventral roots . passes forwards along the roof of the orbit to the skin of the snout . As it passes through the orbit it gives off the long ciliary nerves to the eyeball, and is connected with the small ciliary ganglion (also connected with III.) which in turn gives off the short ciliary nerves to the eyeball . The ophthalmicus superficialis (cut short in the figure) branch passes from the root ganglion of V . (Gasserian ganglion), and passes also over the orbit to the skin of the snout . It lies close to, or completely fused with, the corresponding branch of the lateralis system . The main trunk of V. branches over the edge of the mouth into the maxillary (mx.) and mandibular (md.) divisions, the former, like the two branches already mentioned, purely sensory, the latter mixed—supplying the muscles of mastication as well as the teeth of the lower jaw and the lining of the buccal floor . The main trunk of the Facialis (VII.) bifurcates over the ' For literature of lateral line organs see See also:Cole, Trans . Linn . Soc. vii . (1898) . spiracle into a prespiracular portion—the main portion of which passes to the mucous membrane of the See also:palate as the palatine (pnVIL)—and a postspiracular portion, the hyomandibular (hy.) trunk which supplies the muscles of the hyoid arch and also sends a few sensory fibres to the lining of the spiracle, the floor of mouth and pharynx and the skin of the lower jaw . Combined with the main trunk of the facial are branches belonging to the laleralis system . Lateralis Group of Nerves.—The lateralis group of nerves are charged with the innervation of the system of cutaneous sense organs and are all connected with the same central region in the medulla . A special sensory area of the ectoderm becomes involuted below the surface to form the otocyst, and the nerve fibres belonging to this form the auditory nerve (VIII.) . Other portions of the lateralis group become mixed up with various other cranial nerves as follows: (a) Facial portion . (1) Ophthalmicus superficialis (op.s.VII.): passes to lining of See also:nose or to the lateral line organs of the dorsal part of snout . (2) Buccal (bucc.VIL): lies close to maxillary division of V. and passes to the sensory canals of the lower side of the snout . (3) External mandibular (md.ex.): lies in close association with the mandibular division of V., supplies the sensory canals of the lower jaw and hyoid region . Lateralis vagi (l.n.X.) becomes closely associated with the vagus . It supplies the lateral line organs of the trunk . In the lamprey and in Dipnoans the lateralis vagi loses its superficial position in the adult and comes into close relation with the notochord . In Actinopterygians and at least some Selachians a lateralis set of fibres is associated with IX., and in the former fishes a conspicuous trunk of lateralis fibres passes to some or all (Gadus) of the fins . This has been called the lateralis accessorius and is apparently connected with V., VII., IX., X. and certain spinal nerves.' Vagus Group (IX., X., XI.).—The glossopharyngeus (IX.) forks over the first branchial cleft (pretrematic and post-trematic branches) and also gives off a palatine branch (pn.IX.) . In some cases (various Selachians, Ganoids and Teleosts) it would seem that IX. includes a few fibres of the lateralis group . Vagus (X.) is shown by its multiple roots arising from the medulla and also by the character of its peripheral distribution to be a See also:compound structure formed by the fusion of a number of originally distinct nerves . It consists of (r) a number of branchial branches (X.' X.' &c.), one of which forks over each gill cleft behind the hyobranchial and which may (Selachians) arise by separate roots from the medulla; (2) an intestinal branch (v.n.X.) arising behind the last branchial and innervating the wall of the oesophagus and stomach and it may be even the intestine throughout the greater part of its length (Myxine) . The accessorius (XI.) is not in fishes separated as a distinct nerve from the vagus . With increased development of the brain its hinder portion, giving rise to the vagus system, has apparently come to encroach on the anterior portion of the spinal cord, with the result that a number of spinal nerves have become reduced to a less or more vestigial condition . The dorsal roots of these nerves disappear entirely in the adult, but the ventral roots persist and are, to be seen arising ventrally to the vagus roots . They supply certain muscles of the pectoral fins and of the visceral arches and are known as spino-occipital nerves.' These nerves are divisible into an anterior more ancient set—the occipital nerves—and a posterior set of more recent origin—(occipitospinai nerves) . In Selachians 1-5 pairs of occipital nerves alone are recognizable: in Dipnoans 2-3 pairs of occipital and 2-3 pairs of occipito-spinal: in Ganoids 1-2 pairs occipital and 1-5 pairs occipitospinal; in Teleosts finally the occipital nerves have entirely disappeared while there are 2 pairs of occipito-spinal . In Cyclostomes no special spino-occipital nerves have been described . The fibres corresponding with those of the Hypoglossus (XII.) of higher vertebrates See also:spring from the anterior spinal nerves, ' For literature of lateral line organs see Cole, Trans . Linn . Soc., vii . (1898) . 2 M . Furbringer in Gegenbaur's Festschrift (1896).which are here, as indeed in Amphibia, still free from the cranium . Sympathetic.—The sympathetic portion of the nervous system does not in fishes attain the same degree of differentiation as in the higher groups . In Cyclostomes it is apparently re-presented by a fine plexus with small ganglia found in the neighbourhood of the dorsal aorta and on the surface of the heart and receiving branches from the spinal nerves . In Selachians also a plexus occurs in the neighbourhood of the cardinal veins and extends over the viscera: it receives visceral branches from the anterior spinal nerves . In Teleosts the plexus has become condensed to form a definite sympathetic trunk on each side, extending forwards into the head and communicating with the ganglia of certain of the cranial nerves . (J . G . K.) V . DISTRIBUTION IN TIME AND SPACE The origin of Vertebrates, and how far back in time they extend, is unknown . The earliest fishes were in all probability devoid of hard parts and traces of their existence can scarcely be expected to be found . The hypothesis that they may be derived from the early Crustaceans, or Arachnids, is chiefly based on the somewhat striking resemblance which the mailed fishes of the Silurian period (Ostracodermi) See also:bear to the Arthropods of that remote time, a resemblance, however, very superficial and regarded by most morphologists as an interesting example of mimetic resemblance—whatever this term may be taken to mean . The minute denticles known as conodonts, which first appear in the Ordovician, were once looked upon as teeth of Cyclostomes, but their histological structure does not afford any support to the See also:identification and they are now generally dismissed altogether from the Vertebrates . As a See also:compensation the Lower Silurian of Russia has yielded small teeth or spines which seem to have really belonged to fishes, although their exact affinities are not known (Palaeodus and Archodus of J . V . Rohon) . It is not until we reach the Upper Silurian that satisfactory remains of unquestionable fishes are found,and here they suddenly appear in a considerable variety of forms, very unlike modern fishes in every respect, but so highly developed as to convince us that we have to See also:search in much earlier formations for their ancestors . These Upper Silurian fishes are the Coelolepidae, the Ateleaspidae, the Birkeniidae, the Pteraspidae, the Tremataspidae and the Cephalaspidae, all referred to the Ostracophori . The three last types persist in the Devonian, in the middle of which period the Osteolepid Crossopterygii, the Dipneusti and the Arthrodira suddenly appear . The most primitive Selachian (Cladoselache), the Acanthodian Selachians (Diplacanthidae), the Chimaerids (Ptyctodus), and the Palaeoniscid ganoids (Chirolepis) appear in the Upper Devonian, along with the problematic Palaeospondylus . In the Carboniferous period, the Ostracophori and Arthrodira have disappeared, the Crossopterygii and Dipneusti are still abundant,and the Selachians(Pleuracanthus,Acanthodians,true sharks) and Chondrostean ganoids (Palaeoniscidae and Platysomidae) are predominant . In the Upper See also:Permian the Holostean ganoids (Acanthophorus) make their appearance, and the group becomes dominant in the See also:Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous . In the Trias, the Crossopterygii and Dipneusti dwindle in variety and the Ceratodontidae appear; the Chondrostean and Holostean ganoids are about equally represented, and are supplemented in the Jurassic by the first, annectant representatives of the Teleostei (Pholidophoridae, Leptolepidae) . In the latter period", the Holostean ganoids are predominant, and with them we find numerous Cestraciont sharks, some primitive skates (Squatinidae and Rhinobatidae), Chimaerids and numerous Coelacanthid crossopterygians . The fish-fauna of the Lower Cretaceous is similar to that of the Jurassic, whilst that of the Chalk and other Upper Cretaceous formations is quite modern in aspect, with only a slight admixture of Coelacanthid crossopterygians and Holostean ganoids, the Teleosteans being abundantly represented by Elopidae, Albulidae, Halosauridae, Sec pelidae and Berycidae, many being close See also:allies of the present inhabitants of the deep sea . At this period the spiny-rayed Teleosteans, dominant in the seas of the present day, made their first appearance . With the See also:Eocene, the fish-fauna has assumed the essential character which it now bears . A few Pycnodonts survive as the last representatives of typically Mesozoic ganoids, whilst in the marine deposits of Monte Bolca (Upper Eocene) the principal families of living marine fishes are represented by genera identical with or more or less closely allied to those still existing; it is highly remarkable that forms so highly specialized as the sucking-fish or remoras, the flat-fish (Pleuronectidae), the Pediculati, the Plectognaths, &c., were in existence, whilst in the freshwater deposits of North America Osteoglossidae and Cichlidae were already represented . Very little is known of the freshwater fishes of the early See also:Tertiaries . What has been pre-served of them from the Oligocene and See also:Miocene shows that they differed very slightly from their modern representatives . We may conclude that from early See also:Tertiary times fishes were practically as they are at present . The great See also:hiatus in our know-ledge lies in the period between the Cretaceous and the Eocene . At the present day the Teleosteans are in immense preponderance, Selachians are still well represented, the Chondrostean ganoids are confined to the rivers and lakes of the temperate See also:zone of the See also:northern hemisphere (Acipenseridae, Polyodontidae), the Holostean ganoids are reduced to a few species (Lepidosleus, Amia) dwelling in the fresh See also:waters of North America, Mexico and Cuba, the Crossopterygians are represented by the isolated group Polypteridae, widely different from any of the known fossil forms, with about ten species inhabiting the rivers and lakes of Africa, whilst the Dipneusti linger in See also:Australia (Neocera-(odes), in South America (Lepidosiren), and in tropical Africa (Protopterus) . The imperfections of the geological record preclude any attempt to deal with the distribution in space as regards extinct forms, but several types, at present very restricted in their habitat, once had a very wide distribution . The Ceratodontidae, for instance, of which only one species is now living, confined to the rivers of See also:Queensland, has left remains in Triassic, See also:Rhaetic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks of Europe, North America, See also:Patagonia, North and South Africa, India and Australia; the Amiidae and Lepidosteidae were abundant in Europe in Eocene and Miocene times; the Osteoglossidae, now living in Africa, S.E . Asia and South America, occurred in North America and Europe in the Eocene . In treating of the See also:geographical distribution of modern fishes, it is necessary to distinguish between fresh-water and marine forms . It is, however, not easy to draw a line between these categories, as a large number of forms are able to accommodate themselves to either fresh or salt water, whilst some periodically migrate from the one into the other . On the whole, fishes may be roughly divided into the following categories: 1 . Marine fishes . A. shore-fishes; B. pelagic fishes; C . deep-sea fishes . II . Brackish-water fishes . IV . Migratory fishes . A. anadromous (ascending fresh waters to spawn); B. catadromous (descending to the sea to spawn) . About two-thirds of the known recent fishes are marine . Such are nearly all the Selachians, and, among the Teleosteans, all the Heteromi, Pediculati and the great majority of Apodes, Thoracoslei, Percesoces, Anacanthirai, Acanthopterygii and Plectognathi . All the Crossopterygii, Dipneusti, Opisthomi, Symbranchii, and nearly all the Ganoidei and Ostariophysi are con-fined to fresh-water . The three categories of marine fishes have thus been defined by Gunther:- " 1 . Shore Fishes—that is, fishes which chiefly inhabit parts of the sea in the immediate neighbourhood of See also:land either actually raised above, or at least but little submerged below, the surface of the water . They do not descend to any great depth,—very few to 300 fathoms, and the majority live close to the surface . The distribution of these fishes is determined, not only by the temperature of the surface water, but also by the nature of the adjacent land and its animaland vegetable products,—some being confined to flat coasts with soft or sandy bottoms, others to rocky and fissured coasts, others to living See also:coral formations . If it were not for the frequent mechanical and involuntary removals to which these fishes are exposed, their distribution within certain limits, as it no doubt originally existed, would resemble still more that of freshwater fishes than we find it actually does at the present period . 2 . Pelagic Fishes— that is, fishes which inhabit the surface and uppermost strata of the open ocean, and approach the shores only accidentally or occasionally (in search of prey), or periodically (for the purpose of spawning) . The majority spawn in the open sea, their ova and young being always found at a great distance from the shore . With regard to their distribution, they are still subject to the influences of light and the temperature of the surface water; but they are independent of the variable local conditions which tie the shore fish to its original See also:home, and therefore roam freely over a space which would take a freshwater or shore fish thousands of years to cover in its See also:gradual dispersal . Such as are devoid of rapidity of See also:motion are dispersed over similarly large areas by the oceanic cur-rents, more slowly than the strong swimmers, but not less surely . An accurate definition, therefore, of their distribution within certain areas equivalent to the terrestrial regions is much less feasible than in the case of shore fishes . 3 . Deep-Sea Fishes—that is, fishes which inhabit such depths of the ocean that they are but little or not at all influenced by light or the surface temperature, and which, by their organization, are prevented from reaching the surface stratum in a healthy condition . Living almost under identical tellurian conditions, the same type, the same species, may inhabit an abyssal depth under the See also:equator as well as one near the arctic or antarctic circle; and all that we know of these fishes points to the conclusion that no separate See also:horizontal regions can be distinguished in the abyssal fauna, and that no division into bathymetrical strata can be attempted on the base of generic much less of family characters." A division of the world into regions according to the distribution of the shore-fishes is a much more difficult task than that of tracing See also:continental areas . It is possible perhaps to distinguish four great divisions: the Arctic region, the See also:Atlantic region, the Indo-Pacific region and the Antarctic region . The second and third may be again subdivided into three zones: Northern, Tropical and Southern . This appears to be. a more satisfactory arrangement than that which has been proposed into three zones primarily, each again subdivided according to the different oceans . Perhaps a better division is that adopted by D . S . Jordan, who arranges the littoral fishes according to coast lines; we then have an East Atlantic area, a West Atlantic, an East Pacific and a West Pacific, the latter including the coasts of the Indian Ocean . The tropical zone, whatever be the ocean, is that in which fishes flourish in greatest abundance and where, especially about coral-reefs, they show the greatest variety of bizarre forms and the most gorgeous coloration . The fish-fauna of the Indo-Pacific is much richer than that of the Atlantic, both as regards genera and species . As regards the Arctic and Antarctic regions, the continuity or circumpolar distribution of the shore fishes is well established . The former is chiefly characterized by its Cottids, Cyclopterids, Zoarcids and Gadids, the latter by its Nototheniids . The theory of bipolarity receives no support from the study of the fishes . Pelagic fishes, among which we find the largest Selachians and Teleosteans, are far less limited in their distribution, which, for many species, is nearly world-wide . Some are dependent upon currents, but the great majority being rapid swimmers able to continue their course for See also:weeks, apparently without the,necessity of rest (many sharks, scombrids, sword-fishes), pass from one ocean into the other . Most numerous between the tropics, many of these fishes occasionally wander far north and south of their habitual range, and there are few genera that are at all limited in their distribution . Deep-sea fishes, of which between seven hundred and eight hundred species are known, belong to the most diverse groups and quite a number of families are exclusively bathybial (Chiamydoselachidae, Stomiatidae, Alepocephalidae, Nemichthyidae, Synaphobranchidae, Saccopharyngidae, Cetomimidae, Halosauridae, Lipogenyidae, Notacanthidae, Chiasmodontidae, Icosteidae, Muraenolepididae, Macruridae, Anomalopidae, Podatelidae, Trachypteridae, Lophotidae, Ceratiidae, Gigantactinidae) . But they arc all comparatively slight modifications of the forms living on the surface of the sea or in the shallow parts, from which they may be regarded as derived . In no instance do these types show a structure which may be termed archaic when compared with their surface allies . That these fishes are localized in their vertical distribution, between the Too-fathoms line, often taken as the arbitrary limit of the bathybial fauna, and the depth of 2750 fathoms, the lowest point whence fishes have been procured, there is little doubt .
But our knowledge is still too fragmentary to allow of any general conclusions, and the same applies to the horizontal distribution
.
Yet the same species may occur at most distant points; as these fishes dwell beyond the influence of the sun's rays, they are not affected by temperature, and living in the Arctic zone or under the equator makes little difference to them
.
A great deal of evidence has been accumulated to show the gradual transition of the surface into the bathybial forms; a large number of surface fishes have been met with in deep water (from Too to 500 fathoms), and these animals afford no support to Alexander Agassiz's supposition of the existence of an azoic zone between the zoo-fathoms line and the bottom
.
Brackish-water fishes occur also in salt and fresh water, in some localities at least, and belong to various groups of Teleosteans
.
Sticklebacks, gobies, See also:grey mullets, blennies are among the best-known examples
.
The facility with which they accommodate themselves to changes in the medium in which they live has enabled them to spread readily over very large areas
.
The three-spined See also:stickleback, for instance, occurs over nearly the whole of the See also:cold and temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, whilst a grey mullet (Mugil capilo) ranges without any appreciable difference in form from Scandinavia and the United States along all the Atlantic coasts to the Cape of Good See also:Hope and Brazil
.
It would be hardly possible to base zoo-geographical divisions on the distribution of such forms
.
The fresh-water fishes, however, invite to such attempts, How greatly their distribution differs from that of terrestrial animals has long ago been emphasized
.
The See also: It is not possible here to enter into the discussion of the many problems which the distribution of fresh-water fishes involves; we limit ourselves to an indication of the principal regions into which the world may be divided from this point of view . The main divisions proposed by Gunther in the 0th edition of the Encyclopcedia Britannica still appear the most satisfactory . They are as follows: I . THE NORTHERN ZONE OR HOLARCTIC REGION.—Characterized by Acipenseridae . Few Siluridae . Numerous Cyprinidae, Salmonidae, Esocidae, Percidae . 1 . Europaeo-See also:Asiatic or Palaearctic Region . Characterized by absence of osseous Ganoidei ; Cobitinae and Barbus numerous . 2 . North American or Nearctic Region . Characterized by osseous Ganoidei and abundance of Catostominae; but no Cobitinae or Barbus . II . THE See also:EQUATORIAL ZoNE.—Characterized by the development of Siluridae . A . Cyprinoid Division . Characterized by presence of Cyprinidae, Mastacembelidae . Anabantidae, Ophiocephalidae . Indian Region . Characterized by absence of Dipneusti, Polypteridae, Mormyridae and Characinidae . Cobitinae numerous . 2 . See also:African Region . Characterized by presence of Dipneusti, Polypterid and Mormyrid; See also:Cichlid and Characinid numerous . B . Acyprinoid Division . Characterized by absence of Cyprinidae and the other families mentioned above . I . Tropical American or Neotropical Region . Characterized by presence of Dipneusti; Cichlidae and Characinidae numerous; Gymnotidae and Loricariidae . 2 . Tropical Pacific Region . Includes the Australian as well as the Polynesian Region . Characterized by presence of Dipneusti . Cichlidae and Characinidae absent . 1 . Antarctic Region . Characterized by the small number of species; the fishes of (a) The Tasmanian subregion; (b) The New Zealand subregion; and (c) The Patagonian or Fuegian subregion being almost identical . Although, as expressed in the above synopsis, the resemblance between the Indian and African regions is far greater than exists between them and the other regions of the equatorial zone, attention must be drawn to the marked affinity which some of the fishes of tropical Africa show to those of South America (Lepidosirenidae, Characinidae, Cichlidae, Nandidae), an affinity which favours the supposition of a connexion between these two parts of the world in early Tertiary times . The boundaries of Gunther's regions may thus be traced, beginning with the equatorial zone, this being the richest . |
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