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A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as well as possible hydrodynamic advantages.
Dolphins are sometimes used as symbols, for instance in heraldry. When heraldry developed in the Middle Ages, not much was known about the biology of the dolphin and it was often depicted as a sort of fish. Traditionally, the dolphins in heraldry still may take after this notion, sometimes showing the dolphin skin covered with fish scales.
Leptoid scales are found on higher-order bony fish. As they grow they add concentric layers. As they grow they add concentric layers. They are arranged so as to overlap in a head-to-tail direction, like roof tiles, allowing a smoother flow of water over the body and therefore reducing drag . [ 3 ]
Generally, the skin also contains sweat glands and sebaceous glands that are both unique to mammals, but additional types of skin glands are found in fish. Found in the epidermis, fish typically have numerous individual mucus -secreting skin cells called goblet cells that produce a slimy substance to the surface of the skin.
The stylised heraldic dolphin still conventionally follows this tradition, sometimes showing the dolphin skin covered with fish scales. A well-known historical example was the coat of arms of the former province of the Dauphiné in southern France, from which were derived the arms and the title of the Dauphin of France , the heir to the former ...
The melon is structurally part of the nasal apparatus and comprises most of the mass tissue between the blowhole and the tip of the snout. The function of the melon is not completely understood, but scientists believe it is a bioacoustic component, providing a means of focusing sounds used in echolocation and creating a similarity between characteristics of its tissue and the surrounding water ...
In practice, fish anatomy and physiology complement each other, the former dealing with the structure of a fish, its organs or component parts and how they are put together, such as might be observed on the dissecting table or under the microscope, and the latter dealing with how those components function together in the living fish.
Apart from electric rays, which have a thick and flabby body, with soft, loose skin, chondrichthyans have tough skin covered with dermal teeth (again, Holocephali is an exception, as the teeth are lost in adults, only kept on the clasping organ seen on the caudal ventral surface of the male), also called placoid scales (or dermal denticles ...