Biodiversity of Fishes

Phylogeny and Remarkable Fishes

Rainer Froeserfroese@geomar.de

(13.11.14)

Phylogeny of Fishes

• Phylogeny– Classification based on common ancestry– Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata

Phylogeny of Fishes

• Phylogeny– Classification based on common ancestry– Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata

• Classes– Open www.FishBase.org, section Tools, select Classification Tree– Open www.FishBase.org, select Quick Identification: discuss

Classes, click through to Families

• Fishes in Time– Open FishBase, FishBase Book, Nomenclature, The Orders

Table: discuss common ancestry, show relation to tetrapods, show poster and table (next slides)

Phylogeny of fishes

Classes Common ancestor(million

y)

Orders(n)

Families(n)

Genera(n)

Species(n, %)

Myxini (hagfishes) 600 1 1 6 78 0.2

Cephalaspidomorphi (lampreys)[Petromyzontida]

450 1 3 10 47 0.1

Holocephali (chimaeras)[Chondrichthyes]

420 1 3 6 50 0.1

Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays)[Chondrichthyes]

420 12 51 188 1,158 3.5

Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fishes)

420 3 4 4 8 0.04

Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)

400 46 487 4,833 31,608 95.9

Total 64 549 5,047 32,949 100

FishBase 11/2014http://www.fishbase.org/tools/Classification/ClassificationTree.php

Remarkable Fishes

Discuss: phylogeny, distribution, size, prey and predators, reproduction, growth, brain size, other traits.Myxine glutinosa

Latimeria chalumnae

Rhincodon typus

Engraulis ringens

Mola mola

Need To Know

• Based on common ancestry, the 33,000 known species of fishes are classified into 6 Classes, about 60 Orders and about 500 Families.

• All fishes and tetrapods had a common ancestor about 600 million years ago; tetrapods (about 27,000 species) split off from lobe-finned fishes about 400 million years ago.

• Know the Classes of fishes and their main characteristics

Phylogeny of Fishes

• Exercise– Select and explore some remarkable fishes

based on information in FishBase – Present your findings