Ichthyology Final Exam 361 Questions with Verified
Answers
Approximately how many species of fish are there? - CORRECT ANSWER 32,000
What is a fish? - CORRECT ANSWER Fish are vertebrates that have scales, fins, and
gills.
When did fish evolve? - CORRECT ANSWER 500 million years ago
What precentage of fish are marine? - CORRECT ANSWER ~60%
What areas have the greatest diversity of fish? - CORRECT ANSWER Marine: Indo-
West Pacific Region
Freshwater: Tropical South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
These areas have high diversity of fish because they are equatorial, and they are
areas of a long evolutionary history.
Carl Linneaus - CORRECT ANSWER Father of binomial nomenclature
Peter Artedi - CORRECT ANSWER Father of Ichthyology
Georges Cuvier - CORRECT ANSWER Produced first list of fishes in the world:
Histoire naturelle de poisons, 24, volumes
David Starr Jordan - CORRECT ANSWER Started in the 1890s, described many
North American fishes
Leio S. Berg - CORRECT ANSWER First to use -iformes for ordinal endings
Fishery - CORRECT ANSWER A system comprised of three interacting components:
aquatic biota
aquatic habitat
human users
,Aquaculture - CORRECT ANSWER The cultivation of aquatic animals and plants
Especially fish, but also shellfish and seaweed
natural or controlled, marine or freshwater
What are the values of fishery and aquaculture? - CORRECT ANSWER They play a
role in: eliminating hunger, promoting health, and reducing poverty
Capture Fishery Problems - CORRECT ANSWER Many fish are harvested at
biologically insustainable levels
- reduces abundance
- causes extinction
- influences evolution
Ex: Salmon - smaller individuals left behind to reproduce
Natural Classification - CORRECT ANSWER The classification that best represents
the phylogentic history of an organism and its relatives
Based on the presence of shared derived characters
Evolutionary Species Concept - CORRECT ANSWER A single lineage of ancestor-
descendant populations which maintains its identify from other such lineages and
which has its own evolutionary tendencies and historical fate
Ecological Classification - CORRECT ANSWER Defines a species by its ecological
role or niche
Ex: Cichlids are similar in appearence, but feed at different depths in the lake
Cichlids - CORRECT ANSWER Found in Africa and SA (today)
- 3 rift lakes in Africa (Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi)
How many species of cichlids are there in Africa? - CORRECT ANSWER 1000+
How did cichlids get to South America? - CORRECT ANSWER Hypothesis: There
were cichlids that left freshwater and went to marine. Then they went back to
freshwater in South America.
Lake Victoria - CORRECT ANSWER 2nd largest lake in the world
,Estimated 700 species of cichlid
Lake Tanganyika - CORRECT ANSWER Longest lake in the world (420 mi)
2nd deepest lake in the world
Estimated 250 species
Lake Malawi - CORRECT ANSWER 9th largest lake
2nd deepest lake in Africa
700 species
How do cichlids vary? - CORRECT ANSWER Size, preferred substrate, preferred
depth, breeding behavior, feeding/diet
Taxonomy - CORRECT ANSWER Theory and practice of describing biodiversity
Arranging organisms in to a system of classification
Devising identification keys
Systematics - CORRECT ANSWER Study of relationships postulated to exist among
species or high taxa
- organizes taxa based on evolutionary relationships
Cladistics - CORRECT ANSWER Phylogentic systematics
Developed by Willi Hennig
Goal is to find shared derived characteristics
Apomorphy - CORRECT ANSWER Derived character
Symplesiomorphy - CORRECT ANSWER More ancestral, primative, generalized
characters
Synapomorphy - CORRECT ANSWER Shared derived character
Ex: characiforms have hollow tooth replacement crypt and interdigitating
symphysis on their lower jaw
Clade - CORRECT ANSWER A group that shares a common ancestor
Homoplasies - CORRECT ANSWER Shared, independently derived similarities
, - convergent evolution
Polyphyletic Groups - CORRECT ANSWER Groups containing descendants of
different ancestors
Paraphyletic Group - CORRECT ANSWER Groups that do not contain all of the
decendants of a single ancestor
Grades - CORRECT ANSWER Groups that are defined by their morphological or
ecological distinctness and not necessarily synapomorphies
Ex: Bony VS Cartilaginous fish
Phenetics (numerical taxonomy) - CORRECT ANSWER Start with taxa (OTUs,
operational taxonomic units)
Clusters OTUs based on the similarity of many characteristics
Doesn't distinguish between plesiomorphies and apomorphies
Leads to erroneous conclusions (no longer used)
Anagenesis - CORRECT ANSWER The amount of time and differentiation that have
taken place since the groups divided
Approaches to Classification - CORRECT ANSWER Cladistics
Phenetics
Evolutionary Systematics
Meristic Character - CORRECT ANSWER Counts (number of vertebrae, fin rays,
scales)
Morphometric Characters - CORRECT ANSWER Mesasurable structures (head
length, eye diameter, etc.)
Allometry - CORRECT ANSWER Lengths of different body parts change at different
rates with growth
Osteology of Fish - CORRECT ANSWER In fish more complicated than other
vertebrates
Trend toward fusion and reduction in the number of bony elements
Answers
Approximately how many species of fish are there? - CORRECT ANSWER 32,000
What is a fish? - CORRECT ANSWER Fish are vertebrates that have scales, fins, and
gills.
When did fish evolve? - CORRECT ANSWER 500 million years ago
What precentage of fish are marine? - CORRECT ANSWER ~60%
What areas have the greatest diversity of fish? - CORRECT ANSWER Marine: Indo-
West Pacific Region
Freshwater: Tropical South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
These areas have high diversity of fish because they are equatorial, and they are
areas of a long evolutionary history.
Carl Linneaus - CORRECT ANSWER Father of binomial nomenclature
Peter Artedi - CORRECT ANSWER Father of Ichthyology
Georges Cuvier - CORRECT ANSWER Produced first list of fishes in the world:
Histoire naturelle de poisons, 24, volumes
David Starr Jordan - CORRECT ANSWER Started in the 1890s, described many
North American fishes
Leio S. Berg - CORRECT ANSWER First to use -iformes for ordinal endings
Fishery - CORRECT ANSWER A system comprised of three interacting components:
aquatic biota
aquatic habitat
human users
,Aquaculture - CORRECT ANSWER The cultivation of aquatic animals and plants
Especially fish, but also shellfish and seaweed
natural or controlled, marine or freshwater
What are the values of fishery and aquaculture? - CORRECT ANSWER They play a
role in: eliminating hunger, promoting health, and reducing poverty
Capture Fishery Problems - CORRECT ANSWER Many fish are harvested at
biologically insustainable levels
- reduces abundance
- causes extinction
- influences evolution
Ex: Salmon - smaller individuals left behind to reproduce
Natural Classification - CORRECT ANSWER The classification that best represents
the phylogentic history of an organism and its relatives
Based on the presence of shared derived characters
Evolutionary Species Concept - CORRECT ANSWER A single lineage of ancestor-
descendant populations which maintains its identify from other such lineages and
which has its own evolutionary tendencies and historical fate
Ecological Classification - CORRECT ANSWER Defines a species by its ecological
role or niche
Ex: Cichlids are similar in appearence, but feed at different depths in the lake
Cichlids - CORRECT ANSWER Found in Africa and SA (today)
- 3 rift lakes in Africa (Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi)
How many species of cichlids are there in Africa? - CORRECT ANSWER 1000+
How did cichlids get to South America? - CORRECT ANSWER Hypothesis: There
were cichlids that left freshwater and went to marine. Then they went back to
freshwater in South America.
Lake Victoria - CORRECT ANSWER 2nd largest lake in the world
,Estimated 700 species of cichlid
Lake Tanganyika - CORRECT ANSWER Longest lake in the world (420 mi)
2nd deepest lake in the world
Estimated 250 species
Lake Malawi - CORRECT ANSWER 9th largest lake
2nd deepest lake in Africa
700 species
How do cichlids vary? - CORRECT ANSWER Size, preferred substrate, preferred
depth, breeding behavior, feeding/diet
Taxonomy - CORRECT ANSWER Theory and practice of describing biodiversity
Arranging organisms in to a system of classification
Devising identification keys
Systematics - CORRECT ANSWER Study of relationships postulated to exist among
species or high taxa
- organizes taxa based on evolutionary relationships
Cladistics - CORRECT ANSWER Phylogentic systematics
Developed by Willi Hennig
Goal is to find shared derived characteristics
Apomorphy - CORRECT ANSWER Derived character
Symplesiomorphy - CORRECT ANSWER More ancestral, primative, generalized
characters
Synapomorphy - CORRECT ANSWER Shared derived character
Ex: characiforms have hollow tooth replacement crypt and interdigitating
symphysis on their lower jaw
Clade - CORRECT ANSWER A group that shares a common ancestor
Homoplasies - CORRECT ANSWER Shared, independently derived similarities
, - convergent evolution
Polyphyletic Groups - CORRECT ANSWER Groups containing descendants of
different ancestors
Paraphyletic Group - CORRECT ANSWER Groups that do not contain all of the
decendants of a single ancestor
Grades - CORRECT ANSWER Groups that are defined by their morphological or
ecological distinctness and not necessarily synapomorphies
Ex: Bony VS Cartilaginous fish
Phenetics (numerical taxonomy) - CORRECT ANSWER Start with taxa (OTUs,
operational taxonomic units)
Clusters OTUs based on the similarity of many characteristics
Doesn't distinguish between plesiomorphies and apomorphies
Leads to erroneous conclusions (no longer used)
Anagenesis - CORRECT ANSWER The amount of time and differentiation that have
taken place since the groups divided
Approaches to Classification - CORRECT ANSWER Cladistics
Phenetics
Evolutionary Systematics
Meristic Character - CORRECT ANSWER Counts (number of vertebrae, fin rays,
scales)
Morphometric Characters - CORRECT ANSWER Mesasurable structures (head
length, eye diameter, etc.)
Allometry - CORRECT ANSWER Lengths of different body parts change at different
rates with growth
Osteology of Fish - CORRECT ANSWER In fish more complicated than other
vertebrates
Trend toward fusion and reduction in the number of bony elements
