Biology C30 Test Review Study Guide Place these notes into your Biology Notebook

In chordates, the long supporting rod that runs through the body is called the notochord.

A vertebrate is any chordate that has a backbone. The vertebrate’s skeleton is an endoskeleton that supports and protects the body and grows as the animal grows. One difference between lancelets and tunicates is that adult lancelets have a head region.

The larval tunicate and the adult tunicate are similar in their method of feeding.

Many fishes are characterized by a bony skeleton, scales, paired fins, and gills. Vertebrate X has gills. To determine whether vertebrate X is a fish, it would be useful to know if it also has paired fins. The first vertebrates to evolve were the fishes. Fishes that lived during the late Cambrian Period lacked paired fins.

Fishes, lancelets, and tunicates probably evolved from common invertebrate ancestors. In fishes with gills, oxygen-rich water enters through the mouth and leaves through the openings in the pharynx. Blood flows through the body of a fish in a single-loop closed circulatory system. After passing through the gills of a fish, blood circulates through the rest of the body and then collects in the sinus venosus.

Most fishes get rid of nitrogenous wastes by eliminating ammonia from the gills and from the kidneys. If a fish’s olfactory bulbs were damaged, the fish probably would be unable to recognize substances by their smell.

The organ that adjusts the buoyancy of many bony fishes is the swim bladder.

Suppose a fish is swimming up stream in total darkness. Which of the following would be most likely to help the fish sense aquatic predators that approach it from behind? Its lateral line system.

If a species of fish reproduces through external fertilization, that species must be oviparous. All fishes in the class Chondrichthyes are alike in the composition of their skeletons. (Sharks, Skates, and Rays)(Cartilaginous Fish) The harder a body part is, the greater the chance that it will be well preserved as a fossil. The bony fishes win this prize.

Amphibians live on land as adults, they breathe with lungs as adults, and have moist skin that contains mucous glands. Scales distinguish most fishes from most amphibians. Most amphibians exist as aquatic larvae that breathe with gills and as terrestrial adults that breathe using lungs and skin.

The first amphibians probably resembled lobe-finned fishes, like the coelacanth.

At the end of the Permian Period, most amphibian species became extinct. Some species of amphibians have skin color and markings that enable them to blend in with their surroundings. This would be most effective against predators that hunt by sensing the color of their prey.

In a frog, the cavity through which digestive wastes, urine, and eggs or sperm leave the body is the cloaca. Some salamanders that live on land have lost their lungs.

The left atrium of the amphibian heart contains blood with the highest oxygen concentration.

The eggs of amphibians can dry out easily because they do not have shells.

A frog’s tympanic membranes would be most useful for listening to the mating calls of other frogs.

Similarities between most amphibian larvae and fishes include their method of gas exchange, their method of propelling themselves through the water, and the basic structure of their brains. Salamanders are carnivores as larvae and as adult. Caecilians are amphibians that lack either a pelvic or pectoral girdle.

Caecilian