midterm exam review

Question 1

How is a fish defined?

Answer 1

An aquatic vertebrate with gills and fins.

Question 2

Who produced the first organized system of taxonomic classification?

Answer 2

Carl Linnaeus

Question 3

Who is known as the father of Icthyology?

Answer 3

Peter Artedi

Question 4

Which Class of fishes has the smallest genome?

Answer 4

Class OsteichthyesBony fishes

Question 5

What is the systematic classification of organisms based on relatedness?

Answer 5

Taxonomy

Question 6

What is the study of relationships among species, families and/or higher taxa?

Answer 6

Phylogenetics or systematics

Question 7

What is the diagrammatic arrangement of taxa based on relatedness called?

Answer 7

A cladogram

Question 8

What are the three primary groups of fishes?

Answer 8

Jawless (class myxini and petromyzontida), cartilagenous (chondrichthes) and bony (osteichthyes) fishes

Question 9

Which taxonomic Class of fishes contains the most species?

Answer 9

Class Osteicthyes (bony fishes)

Question 10

Icthyologists attempt to identify shared derived traits that characterize groups containing all the descendants of an ancestral taxon called what?

Answer 10

synapomorphies

Question 11

The extinct ancestors of the living groups of fishes were characterized by which two caudal fin types?

Answer 11

heterocercal and hypocercal

Question 12

The first group of jawed fishes was Class ____?

Answer 12

Class Placodermi

Question 13

Which Class of living fishes is characterized by the production of copius quantities of mucus from multiple slime glands along the body?

Answer 13

Class myxiniformes (the hagfishes)

Question 14

Without jaws, what two primary feeding mode are exemplified by the jawless fishes?

Answer 14

Scavenging and parasitism

Question 15

What primary characteristic is shared among all of Class Chondricthyes?

Answer 15

Cartilaginous endoskeleton

Question 16

The Infraclass Elasmobranchii contains which groups of fishes

Answer 16

Sharks, skates and rays

Question 17

Which taxonomic Order of Class Chondricthyes contains the majority of species?

Answer 17

Carcharhiniformes

Question 18

Spiracles are a common morphological trait among Chondricthyans except for the Chimaeriforms, used for what physiological activity?

Answer 18

Respiration

Question 19

The evolution of mouth position in Class Chondrichthyes has transitioned from terminal in the extinct ancestors to mostly _________ in the living members?

Answer 19

Inferior

Question 20

To which taxonomic Order did the shark ‘actor’ from the movie ‘Jaws’ belong?

Answer 20

lamniformes

Question 21

What is the primary shared physical characteristic shared among all Class Osteicthyes?

Answer 21

An ossified endoskeleton made of bone

Question 22

What historical significance is associated with the primitive bony fish Order Coelacanthiformes (the Coelacanth)?

Answer 22

Thought to have gone extinct millions of years ago, before being rediscovered in 1938

Question 23

The advanced Class Osteichthyes Order Elopiformes (tarpons,and ladyfishes) are characterized by what type of larval stage?

Answer 23

leptocephalus larvae

Question 24

Which bony fish Order comprises the most freshwater species in the world?

Answer 24

Order Cypriniformes (the minnows, carps, suckers, loaches, and danios)

Question 25

Which taxonomic Order is thought to be the most derived group of bony fishes

Answer 25

Tetraodontiformes

Question 26

Much of the evolutionary traits of Euteleostan bony fishes shared among the modern-day members occurred in which two regions of the animals?

Answer 26

skull (cranium) and caudal fin

Question 27

Which bony fish Order is characterized by the presence of an adipose fin

Answer 27

Order Salmoniformes

Question 28

To which bony fish Order do the ecologically and economically important group of fishes to Florida called mullets belong?

Answer 28

mugiliformes

Question 29

The largest bony fish in the ocean belongs to which taxonomic Order

Answer 29

Tetraodontiformes (Mola sp.; Ocean Sunfish)

Question 30

Which taxonomic Order contains the greatest number and diversity of fishes

Answer 30

Perciformes