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In other words, the cyclostome characteristics (e.g. horny teeth on a "tongue", gill pouches) are either instances of convergent evolution for feeding and gill ventilation in animals with an eel-like body shape, or represent primitive craniate characteristics subsequently lost or modified in gnathostomes.
The teeth are in several series; the upper jaw is not fused to the cranium, and the lower jaw is articulated with the upper. The eyes have a tapetum lucidum. The inner margin of each pelvic fin in the male fish is grooved to constitute a clasper for the transmission of sperm. These fish are widely distributed in tropical and temperate waters. [15]
A) Overall view of common mudpuppy mouth. B) Ventral view of vomerine and premaxillary teeth, located on the upper part of the mudpuppy mouth. C) Lower jaw, or dentary from a common mudpuppy showing the homodont dentary teeth. Specimen from the Pacific Lutheran University Natural History collection. Mudpuppies use rows of teeth to eat their ...
The jaws were used in the buccal pump still observable in modern fish and amphibians, that uses "breathing with the cheeks" to pump water across the gills of fish or air into the lungs in the case of amphibians. Over evolutionary time the more familiar use of jaws (to humans), in feeding, was selected for and became a very important function in ...
A bathtub faucet with built-up calcification from hard water in Southern Arizona. Hard water is water that has a high mineral content (in contrast with "soft water"). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum, [1] which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates and sulfates.
Early bony fish had simple respiratory diverticula (an outpouching on either side of the esophagus) which helped them breathe air in low-oxygen water as a form of supplementary enteral respiration. In ray-finned fish these have evolved into swim bladders, the changing sizes of which help to alter the body's specific density and buoyancy.
Instead, they have convergent structures called pharyngeal teeth in the throat. While other groups of fish, such as cichlids, also possess pharyngeal teeth, the cypriniformes' teeth grind against a chewing pad on the base of the skull, rather than an upper pharyngeal jaw. [5] A true loach - the spined loach, Cobitis taenia
In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, but in some other chordates they are part of a filter-feeding system that extracts food particles from ingested water. In tetrapods, they are only present during embryonic stages of the development. A post-anal tail. A muscular tail that extends backwards beyond the location of the anus.