What is the function of operculum in fish?
The operculum is a bony flap of skin over their gills that protects the gills. It opens and closes to help bony fish breathe when they are not swimming. Why is the Operculum located near the head of the fish?
What is the function of the opercular series in bony fish?
Opercular series in bony fish: operculum (yellow), preoperculum (red), interoperculum (green) and suboperculum (pink) The operculum is a series of bones found in bony fish and chimaeras that serves as a facial support structure and a protective covering for the gills; it is also used for respiration and feeding.
Which of the following fish has no operculum?
all bony fishes have operculi . best example of fish having no operculum is shark. Q: What is the function of the operculum on a fish? Write your answer...
Do cartilaginous fishes have operculum?
Do cartilaginous fishes have Operculum? Most cartilaginous fishes are marine carnivores with powerful jaws. Unlike bony fishes, they have no swim bladder, and therefore avoid sinking only by constant swimming with the aid of an asymmetrical (heterocercal) tail.
How does the operculum help the fish survive?
When the fish opens its mouth the opercula close, meaning that water can flow over the gills and O2 can be extracted and CO2 can be removed. Then the fish closes the mouth and the opercula open, allowing the water to flow out of the fish.
What is the advantage of the operculum in bony fish?
In bony fish, the operculum protects the gills. It is also tasked with providing facial support as well as respiration and feeding.
What is the purpose of operculum?
Operculum: The operculum is the bony flap that protects the gills from harm. It opens and closes to allow water to pass over the gills.
What is the operculum used for?
Many times, the most essential purpose of the operculum is to protect the live gastropod from drying up. This is especially important for snails that live in the intertidal zone, where they are exposed to air during low tides and submerged during high tides.
What is the operculum in fish?
The operculum is a series of bones found in bony fish and chimaeras that serves as a facial support structure and a protective covering for the gills; it is also used for respiration and feeding.
Why do fish have opercular series?
The opercular series is vital in obtaining oxygen. They open as the mouth closes, causing the pressure inside the fish to drop. Water then flows towards the lower pressure across the fish's gill lamellae, allowing some oxygen to be absorbed from the water.
What are the four bones in the opercular series?
Anatomy. The opercular series contains four bone segments known as the preoperculum, suboperculum, interoperculum and operculum. The preoperculum is a crescent-shaped structure that has a series of ridges directed posterodorsally to the organisms canal pores. The preoperculum can be located through an exposed condyle that is present immediately ...
Why are threespine sticklebacks so thick?
This provides evidence that there was an evolutionary change in the operculum bone. The thicker and more dense bone may have been favored due to selective pressures exerted from the threespine stickleback's environment.
What genes are involved in the development of the operculum bone?
Genes that are essential in the development of the opercular series is the Eda and Pitx1 genes. These genes are known to be a part of the development and loss of armor plates in gnathostomes.
Where is the suboperculum located?
The suboperculum is rectangular in shape in most bony fishy and is located ventral to the preoperculum and operculum components. It is the thinnest bone segment out of the opercular series and is located directly above the gills. The interoperculum is triangular shaped and borders the suboperculum posterodorsally and the preoperculum anterodorsally.
Do sharks have operculums?
Sharks, rays and relatives such as elasmobranch fishes lack the opercular series. They instead respire through a series of gill slits that perforate the body wall. Without the operculum bone, other methods of getting water to the gills are required, such as ram ventilation, as used by many sharks.
What is the operculum of a bony fish?
The operculum of a bony fish is the hard bony flap covering and protecting the gills. In most fish, the rear edge of the operculum roughly marks the division between the head and the body. The operculum is composed of four bones; the opercle, preopercle, interopercle, and subopercle. The morphology of this anatomical feature varies greatly between ...
Why does the operculum need oxygen?
For some fish, the operculum is vital in obtaining oxygen. It opens as the mouth closes, causing the pressure inside the fish to drop. Water then flows towards the lower pressure across the fish's gill lamellae, allowing some oxygen to be absorbed from the water.
How do fish get oxygen?
Most mammals get oxygen from the air, but most fishes get oxygen from the water. To get oxygen from the water, fish must pass water over their gills. Gills are composed of a gill arch, gill filaments, and gill rakers (see Fig. 4.37). In many fishes the gill arch is a hard structure that supports the gill filaments.
What is the external anatomy of a fish?
External Anatomy of Fishes. Anatomy is the study of an organism’s structures. Fishes come in a diverse array of forms, many with special modifications. The shape, size, and structure of body parts permit different fishes to live in different environments or in different parts of the same environment. The external anatomy of a fish can reveal ...
What is the function of the side of a fish?
The side or flank. Scientists measure and describe the external features of fishes to identify species, assess age and health, and learn about structure and function. Scientists work with a variety of types of fishes to do this.
Why does a fish's bladder have a low density?
The gas bladder has a low density because it is filled mostly with oxygen and nitrogen gases. The gas bladder acts like an inflatable balloon inside the fish. The gas bladder reduces the density of the fish’s body until it is the same as the density of seawater. This helps the fish float within the water column.
Why is UV light important for reef fish?
UV vision is especially useful for reef fishes. UV vision helps fishes in foraging, communication, and mate selection. Elasmobranchs, and some teleosts, also have a tapetum lucidum. The tapetum lucidum is a shiny, reflective structure that reflects light and helps vision in low light situations.
What is the function of a fish's gill raker?
The gill rakers are comb-like structures that filter food from the water before it heads to the gills. This keeps food particles inside the fish’s mouth and lets water move out toward the gills. The structure of a fish’s gill rakers indicates something about its diet.
What is the caudal fin?
The caudal fin is also a median fin (Fig. 4.22 A). The caudal peduncle is the base of the caudal fin. Peduncle means stem, and the caudal peduncle is where the strong swimming muscles of the tail are found. Together, the caudal fin acts like a “propeller” for the fish, and the caudal peduncle acts like a motor.
Why is the operculum important?
The operculum can be important in adjusting the pressure of water inside of the pharynx to allow proper ventilation of the gills, so that bony fish do not have to rely on ram ventilation (and hence near constant motion) to breathe. Valves inside the mouth keep the water from escaping.
How do fish anatomy and physiology complement each other?
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 later dealing with how those components function together in the living fish.
Why do teleosts use gills?
Marine teleosts also use gills to excrete electrolytes. The gills' large surface area tends to create a problem for fish that seek to regulate the osmolarity of their internal fluids. Saltwater is less dilute than these internal fluids, so saltwater fish lose large quantities of water osmotically through their gills.
What is the circulatory system in fish?
In fish, the system has only one circuit, with the blood being pumped through the capillaries of the gills and on to the capillaries of the body tissues. This is known as single cycle circulation.
What does red mean in fish?
Red represents a higher value (e.g. of temperature or the partial pressure of a gas) than blue so the property being transported in the channels flows from red to blue. In fish a countercurrent flow (lower diagram) of blood and water in the gills is used to extract oxygen from the environment.
How do fish exchange gases?
Fish exchange gases by pulling oxygen-rich water through their mouths and pumping it over their gills. In some fish, capillary blood flows in the opposite direction to the water, causing countercurrent exchange. The gills push the oxygen-poor water out through openings in the sides of the pharynx.
What fish have a labyrinth?
Labyrinth fish (such as gouramis and bettas) have a labyrinth organ above the gills that performs this function. A few other fish have structures resembling labyrinth organs in form and function, most notably snakeheads, pikeheads, and the Clariidae catfish family.
