JAWLESS, BONY, AND
CARTILAGINOUS
FISHES
REPORTED BY:
BAGUNDOL, JAMIE GELLAMUCHO
BSED-BIOLOGY III
Jawless Fish
Superclass Agnatha: “Jawless
fish” – fish without jaws or scales.
Have cartilaginous skeleton and
simple spinal column.
Every chordate has a notochord, a flexible supporting rod along
the inside of its body, during some part of its lifecycle. In
vertebrates, the notochord is usually replaced by a spinal column
before the animal hatches or is born.
The hagfish keeps its notochord throughout its life. It never
develops a backbone.
A lamprey also retains its notochord through adulthood.
However, it also has small arcualia (pairs of cartilage) above the
notochord.
Jawless fish are missing the following
parts:
Jaws.
Paired fins.
A stomach.
Features of Jawless Fish
Physical Characteristics
Jawless fish have long bodies and look like eels.
They have tails.
Their skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone.
They have no scales.
Lampreys and hagfish have glands in their skin that excrete slime.
They have no stomachs. The digestive tract of a jawless fish
consists of its mouth, throat, intestine and anus.
Jawless fish are ectothermic (cold-blooded).
Although jawless fish do not have
paired fins, they do have caudal
fins (tail fins).
Lampreys also have two dorsal
fins (fins on their backs).
FINS
Jawless fish practice external
fertilization and are oviparous -
the young develop in eggs that
are outside the parent's body.
REPRODUCTION
HAGFISH
FEEDING
Both hagfish and lampreys have round mouths that act like suckers.
Jawless fish are sometimes known ascyclostomes, which is Ancient Greek
for "circle mouth."
Jawless fish have very sharp teeth.
Because they do not have jaws, they cannot move their teeth up and down.
Hagfish feed by shredding the bodies of dead or injured animals.
A hagfish will sometimes enter the body of its prey via the prey's mouth,
anus or gills and then feed on its prey from inside.
Sometimes, a hagfish will tie itself into a knot in order to give itself leverage
when it is tearing off the flesh off of its prey.
LAMPREYS
Lampreys are parasites. A lamprey will use its teeth
to grab onto the flesh of an animal and then suck
out the animal's blood and its other bodily fluids.
When it feeds, a lamprey will inject a fluid that
prevents blood from clotting into its host.
SUMMARY
The jawless fish include the lampreys and the
hagfish.
Jaws, fins, and stomachs are absent in the jawless
fish.
Features of the jawless fish include a notochord,
paired gill pouches, a pineal eye, and a two-
chambered heart.
Fish (bony and
cartilaginous)
Phylum: Chordata
Osteichthyes (Bony
fishes)
• Characteristics
Bony Endoskeleton
: • Gills covered by operculum
• Mouth at Terminal end of the Head
• Swim Bladder Present
• Cycloid and Ctenoid Scales
• Fertilization is external
Salmon
Trout
Rohu
Flying Fish
(cartilaginous
fishes)
Characteristics:
• Cartilaginous Endoskeleton
• Gills are exposed to the outside
• Mouth on the Central Side of the Head
• Swim Bladder Absent
• Placoid Scales
• Fertilization is internal
Examples:
Sharks
Rays
SUMMARY
Class Osteichthyes: “Hard-boned Fish” – true
jawed fish with bony skeleton, scales, paired fins,
gills and air bladder.
Class Chondrichthyes: “Soft-boned Fish” – jawed
marine fish with cartilaginous skeleton, scales and
paired fins.
