|
| 1 | Today fish are recognized as aquatic vertebrates with gills, appendages (if present, in the form of fins) and usually a skin covered in scales of dermal origin. However, fish do NOT comprise a monophyletic group. |
 | A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 2 | There are more species of fish than all other groups of vertebrates combined. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 3 | Which of the following is NOT correct? |
| A) | Fishes are a vast array of distantly related gill-breathing aquatic vertebrates with fins |
| B) | Fishes are the most ancient and the most diverse of the monophyletic subphylum Vertebrata, constituting five of the nine living vertebrate classes |
| C) | Jawless fishes such as hagfishes and lampreys are the living groups most closely resembling the extinct armored Ostracoderms |
| D) | The tetrapod vertebrates—land vertebrates—arose from a common placoderm ancestor in the Devonian |
| E) | All of the above are correct |
|
| 4 | Which of the following is NOT a biological contribution of fish? |
| A) | The evolution of cellular bone |
| B) | The evolution of an enclosed brain and spinal cord |
| C) | The evolution of a vertebral column |
| D) | The evolution of true jaws with teeth, and paired pectoral and pelvic fins |
| E) | All of the above are correct |
|
| 5 | The gills of fish are the most effective respiratory devices in the animal kingdom for extracting oxygen from a medium that is 800 times as dense as air yet contains less than five percent the concentration of oxygen as air. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 6 | The earliest vertebrates were an assemblage of jawless agnathan fishes, the Ostracoderms, one group of which gave rise to the jawed gnathostomes. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 7 | As a group, sharks and their kin flourished during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods of the Mesozoic era but declined dangerously close to extinction at the end of the Mesozoic. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 8 | Which of the following is correct? |
| A) | Acanthodians somewhat resemble cartilaginous fishes but were distinguished by having heavy spins on all fins except the caudal fin |
| B) | Only one distinct group of bony fish survive today, the ray-finned Actinopterygii |
| C) | The lobe-finned fishes are represented today by both the lungfishes and coelacanth, and include the sister group of the tetrapod |
| D) | Living jawless fishes are represented by approximately 106 species comprising two classes, the Myxini and the Actinopterygii |
| E) | None of the above is correct |
|
| 9 | Which of the following is lacking in the living jawless fishes? |
| A) | Jaws |
| B) | Internal ossification |
| C) | Scales |
| D) | Paired fins |
| E) | All of the above are lacking in the living jawless fishes |
|
| 10 | Hagfishes and lampreys have been assigned to separate vertebrate classes, which means that the name “agnatha” is a paraphyletic assemblage of jawless fishes. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 11 | Which of the following is NOT correct? |
| A) | Myxini—naked skin with slime glands |
| B) | Myxini—one pair of semicircular canals |
| C) | Myxini—no brain but 12 pairs of cranial nerves |
| D) | Myxini—no jaws |
| E) | All of the above are correct |
|
| 12 | Hagfishes are renowned for their ability to secrete enormous quantities of slime, which is part of their well-known reproductive strategy. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 13 | The family name Petromyzontidae refers to the lamprey’s habit of grasping a stone with its mouth to hold its position in a current. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 14 | Unlike any other vertebrate, the body fluids of hagfishes are in osmotic equilibrium with seawater, as in most marine invertebrates. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 15 | Which of the following statements is true? |
| A) | Lampreys comprise hundreds of extant species, most of which are parasitic |
| B) | Lampreys have incipient paired appendages, unlike other members of the Class Cephalospidomorphi |
| C) | Lampreys have a single gonad, external fertilization, and a long larval stage known as the bipinnaria larva |
| D) | No lampreys ascend freshwater streams to breed—they are only marine |
| E) | The larva of lampreys bear a remarkable resemblance to amphioxus |
|
| 16 | When the Welland Ship Canal was built in 1829, which of the following invaded the Great Lakes and nearly devastated the fishing industry of that region? |
| A) | Lumbricus terristris |
| B) | Asterias marinus |
| C) | Petromyzon marinus |
| D) | Papilio canadensis |
| E) | None of the above is correct |
|
| 17 | Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the Class Chondrichthyes? |
| A) | Endoskeleton is entirely cartilaginous (bone is entirely absent) |
| B) | Digestive system with J-shaped stomach and a spiral valve in the intestine |
| C) | Skin with placoid scales or naked in elasmobranches |
| D) | Mouth is always terminal or apical in position |
| E) | Heterocercal rather than homocercal tail |
|
| 18 | Fertilization is internal in the cartilaginous fishes. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 19 | Although calcification may be extensive in their skeletons, bone is entirely absent throughout the class, even though the Chondrichthyes are derived from ancestors with well-developed bone. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 20 | All sharks are marine organisms. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 21 | The worldwide shark fishery is experiencing unprecedented pressure, in part driven by high prices for shark fins. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 22 | Which of the following is NOT correct about sharks? |
| A) | Placoid scales—toothlike dermal scales that reduce turbulence of water flow |
| B) | Odor detection—poorly developed in all sharks |
| C) | Lateral line system—senses low-frequency vibrations |
| D) | Ampullae of Lorenzini—senses bioelectric fields of living prey |
| E) | Placenta—in viviparous species |
|
| 23 | All chondrichthans have internal fertilization, but sharks may be oviparous, ovoviviparous, or viviparous. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 24 | To prevent water from being drawn out of the body osmotically, elasmobranches retain nitrogenous compounds, especially urea and trimethlamine oxide, which when combined with the blood salts, raise the blood solute concentration to exceed that of seawater. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 25 | The ratfish is a… |
| A) | Placoderm |
| B) | Ostracoderm |
| C) | Holocephalian |
| D) | Rajiform |
| E) | Molluscan |
|
| 26 | Instead of a toothed mouth, the jaws of chimaeras bear large flat plates in their jaws, the upper one of which is completely fused to the cranium. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 27 | As far as fishes are concerned, it is now recognized that bone occurs not only in the Osteichthyes, but also many other early fishes including which of the following? |
| A) | Ostracoderms |
| B) | Placoderms |
| C) | Acanthodians |
| D) | All of the above are correct |
| E) | None of the above is correct |
|
| 28 | By the end of the Devonian, bony fishes had radiated extensively into two major groups, the ray-finned fishes (Class Actinopterygii) and the lobe-finned fishes (Class Sarcopterygii), the latter of which is represented by the sharks, rays, and chimaeras. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 29 | Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the Actinopterygii? |
| A) | Paired and medial fins present, supported by long dermal rays |
| B) | Respiration primarily by gills supported by arches and covered with an operculum |
| C) | Swim bladder present |
| D) | All have a heterocercal tail |
| E) | Excretory system of paired opisthonephric kidneys |
|
| 30 | There are two surviving genera of early neopterygians, represented by the bowfin and the gar. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 31 | The major lineages of neopterygians are the teleosts, the modern bony fishes, with a diversity of nearly 24,000 species. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 32 | No fish is known to make extended excursions onto land. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 33 | Light, thin, flexible cycloid and ctenoid scales in the bony fishes replaced the heavy dermal armor of primitive ray-finned fishes. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 34 | The opercula of many teleosts diversified into powerful pharyngeal jaws for chewing, grinding, and crushing. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 35 | Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the Class Sarcopterygii? |
| A) | All early sarcopterygians had lungs as well as gills |
| B) | A diphycercal tail |
| C) | Double circulation with pulmonary and systemic circuits |
| D) | Skeleton with bone of endochrondral origin |
| E) | Skin covered with heavy scales covered with a thin enamel of keratin |
|
| 36 | Only the African and the Australian lungfishes can live out of water for extended periods of time. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 37 | Rhipidistians are of special importance because they include the ancestors of tetrapods, and in cladistic terms, are therefore a paraphyletic group. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 38 | The coelacanth and its relatives were believed to have been extinct for over 550 million years, since the advent of the Precambrian. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 39 | The propulsive mechanism of a fish is its trunk and tail musculature. The axial, locomotory musculature is composed of zigzag bands, called… |
| A) | Opercula |
| B) | Myomeres |
| C) | Odontophores |
| D) | Z-bands |
| E) | None of the above is correct |
|
| 40 | All fishes are slightly heavier than water. To keep from sinking, sharks must always keep moving forward in the water and the presence of the asymmetrical heterocercal tail provides the necessary lift. What provides some of their buoyancy? |
| A) | Large external nares |
| B) | Squalene from the liver |
| C) | J-shaped buoyant stomach |
| D) | A spiral valve |
| E) | None of the above is correct |
|
| 41 | Without a swim bladder, bony fishes sink because their tissues are denser than water. To compensate and achieve at least neutral buoyancy, they displace additional water by a volume of gas in a swim bladder. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 42 | Deep-sea fishes must have a pressure in their swim bladders exceeding 240 atmospheres, which exceeds the pressure in a fully charged steel gas cylinder. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 43 | Fish gills are composed of thin filaments, each covered with a thin epidermal membrane that is folded repeatedly into platelike… |
| A) | Opercula |
| B) | Gill slits |
| C) | Lamellae |
| D) | Ctenophores |
| E) | None of the above is correct |
|
| 44 | For maximal absorption of dissolved oxygen from water, the flow of water is opposite to the direction of blood flow. Very active fishes, such as mackerel, can only obtain sufficient oxygen by continuously swimming forward to force water into the mouth and over the gills. This kind of forced ventilation is called… |
| A) | Osmotic regulation |
| B) | Ram ventilation |
| C) | Euryhaline ventilation |
| D) | Hydrostatic ventilation |
| E) | None of the above is correct |
|
| 45 | Fish may be which of the following? |
| A) | Herbivores |
| B) | Suspension-feeders |
| C) | Carnivores |
| D) | Parasites |
| E) | All of the above are correct |
|
| 46 | Recent enzyme electrophoretic analyses of eel larvae confirmed not only the existence of separate European and American species of these fish, but also that both species spawn in partially overlapping areas of the Sargasso Sea. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |
|
| 47 | After migrating downstream as a smolt, a sockeye salmon ranges many hundreds of miles over the Pacific for nearly 4 years, then returns almost unerringly to spawn in the headwaters of its parent stream where it mates and then returns to the ocean to complete the cycle. |
| A) | True |
| B) | False |