Things to know for the second Ichthyology lecture exam
The second exam will cover lecture material from 6 October through 29 October lectures. This
includes chapters 8-14 in Moyle and Cech. You will not need to know dates, but you should be able
to recognize what groups developed key features and relative order of appearance of major groups.
I won’t be hard on spelling this time, but you should be close in your names and must be able to
recognize names of the fish groups we covered in class that also are in the book and the handouts.
1) Senses
a. Understand what organs and their parts are involved in:
i. Mechanoreception (ears, lateral line, Weberian Ossicles, gas bladder)
ii. Vision (eyes, their parts, and properties of light in water)
iii. Chemoreception (nares and taste buds)
iv. Electroreception and magnetoreception (classes of electric fish, receptors)
b. Know when each type of sense might be advantageous and some of the more unusual
instances of each that we covered in class (e.g., four eyed fish, electric fish)
2) Fish growth and development
a. Know the general pattern of fish growth and what affects growth
b. Why don’t we have larger fish? What limits growth?
c. Know the stages of fish development (egg, embryo, larva, juvenile, adult, senescent)
d. Know what occurs or defines each developmental stage
3) Reproduction
a. Understand the difference between male and female reproductive investment
b. Be able to define and explain of sexual dimorphism and dichromatism
c. Know the different mating systems (monogamy through promiscuity)
d. Understand the different forms of hermaphroditism
e. Understand different reproductive strategies (Table 9.1)
i. What mating system might each type use?
ii. What does it mean about the tradeoff between investments in eggs vs. care?
iii. How does offspring survival vary for the different strategies?
iv. Know the types of internal bearers: oviparous, ovoviviparous, viviparous
f. What is meant by a trade-off for providing parental care?
4) Behavior and communication
a. Be able to define terms used to describe migrations based on pattern and frequency
b. Know how and why fish shoal and school
c. Understand the effect of shoaling for predators and prey
d. Review the different coloration patterns found in fish
i. What are different patterns used for?
ii. What does color tell you about the fishes ecology (e.g., habitat or behavior)
e. Know how different colors arise (structural colors vs. pigments in chromatophores)
f. Be familiar with how fish communicate (color, behavioral cues, sound, electricity)
5) Evolution of early fishes
a. Have a basic understanding of how speciation occurs
b. With what groups did certain features arise and why were they important?
c. Understand what is meant by the “arms race” in terms of fish evolution
6) Know key details about hagfish and lamprey form, function, and special adaptations
