Organization and Scope ● Schedule ● Grading ● Helpful Files ● Links

 

Chris Kenaley, Instructor, Office: the UW Fish Collection, Fisheries Teaching and Research, FTR 005A. Telephone 616-2485, e-mail: ckenaley@u.washington.edu.  Office hours: no hard and fast time, just send an email and we'll meet.

 

Dawn Roje, Teaching Assistant, Tuesday-Thursday morning: the UW Fish Collection, Fisheries Teaching and Research, FTR 005C. Telephone 685-3438, e-mail: dawnr5@u.washington.edu. Office hours: TBA.

 

Rachel Arnold, Teaching Assistant, Tuesday-Thursday afternoon. Office: the UW Fish Collection, Fisheries Teaching and Research, FTR 005B. Telephone 685-3438, e-mail: schoenrj@u.washington.edu. Office hours: TBA.

 

Zach Baldwin, Teaching Assistant, Wednesday-Friday afternoon. Office: the UW Fish Collection, Fisheries Teaching and Research, FTR 005. Telephone 543-3816, e-mail: zbaldy@u.washington.edu. Office hours: TBA.

 



● Organization and Scope ●

 

Fish 311 is an introductory course designed to provide an overview of the wonderful world of fishes, their kinds and ways. We’ll discuss and conduct a hands-on examination of the biology and diversity of living fishes of the world—from ancient bottom-living hagfishes and lampreys to modern-day sharks, rays, and bony fishes; from the freshwaters of Amazonia and to mangrove swamps and coral reefs; and from shallow-water lakes and streams to the deepest parts of the world's oceans.

 

● Schedule ●

 

This schedule is available as a pdf. Lecture notes are available for download in pdf format (Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 required)

 

Monday

January 7

Introduction: organization and scope of the course; definitions; major themes: form, function, and biodiversity; major groups of fishes.

 

Chapter 1

Wednesday

January 9

1. Form: External anatomy; body shape and size; fins, spines, and scales; evolutionary trends in body form.

 

Chapters 1, 3

Friday

January 11

2. Biodiversity: Numbers and kinds of fishes; diversity through time; taxonomy, systematics, and classification; major groups of fishes.

 

Chapter 2

Monday

January 14

3. Form and function: Origin and kinds of bone; evolution of skeletal systems; functional units of the fish skeleton.

 

Chapter 3

Wednesday

January 16

4. Function: Locomotory mechanisms; anguilliform versus carangiform swimming; non-swimming locomotion; the functions of fins.

 

Chapter 8

Friday

January 18

5. Form and function: Airbladder evolution and structure; swimbladders and buoyancy; respiration and sound production.

 

Chapter 4

Monday

January 21

Holiday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

 

 

Wednesday

January 23

6. Biodiversity: Methods and goals of systematics; phenetics, evolutionary systematics, and cladistics.

 

Chapter 2

Friday

January 25

7. Biodiversity I: Jawless fishes; sharks and their allies; evolutionary successes and failures.

 

Chapters 11, 12

Monday

January 28

Showing of "Jewels of the Rift," a film exploring the adaptive radiation of Lake Tanganyika's cichlids

 

Wednesday

January 30

 

Lecture Examination I

Friday

February 1

8. Biodiversity II: Primitive bony fishes and the rise of modern teleosts.

 

Chapter 13

Monday

February 4

9. Form and function: Feeding modes and mechanisms; biomechanical considerations; upper jaw mobility and evolutionary success.

 

Chapter 8

Wednesday

February 6

How taxonomy and systematics informs management:

Examples from the Bering Sea groundfish fishery.

 

Friday

February 8

10. Form and function: Feeding modes and mechanisms continued: how fishes get their mouths open and closed.

 

Chapter 8

Monday

February 11

11. Biodiversity III: Trends in teleost evolution; primitive teleosts and the rise of euteleost fishes.

 

Chapter 14

Wednesday

February 13

19. Deep-sea fishes: biodiversity and bioluminescence in the world's largest ecosystem

 

Chapter 17

Friday

February 15

12. Biodiversity IV: Primitive euteleosts and the rise of acanthomorph fishes.

 

Chapter 14

Monday

February 18

 

Holiday: President’s Day

Wednesday

February 20

13. Form and function: Modes of reproduction; functional anatomy; unique strategies and adaptations; parental care.

 

Abstract of term paper due by 5:00 pm. Submit here.

 

Chapter 20

Friday

February 22

14. Form and function: Osmoregulation, water and ionic balance in diverse aquatic environments.

 

Chapter 7

 

Monday

February 25

15. Function: Respiration; buccal and opercular pumps; structure and function of gills; air-breathing fishes.  

 

 

Chapter 5

Wednesday

February 27

 

Lecture Examination II

Friday

February 29

16. Biodiversity V: Percomorph fishes and derivative orders; morphology, ecology, and co-evolution.

 

Chapter 15

Monday

March 3

17. Form, function, and biodiversity: Early life history, eggs and larvae, techniques and approaches, ontogeny and phylogeny.

 

 

Chapter 9

Wednesday

March 5

18. Biodiversity VI: Sarcopterygian fishes; video on the story of Latimeria; tetrapod ancestry—we are primates, we are fishes.

 

Be sure to read Greene (1999), “We are fishes”,  and Pearse (1999), “We are sponges”

 

 

Chapter 13

Friday

March 7

20. Form and function, sensory perception I: Smell and taste; hearing and the acoustico-lateralis system.

 

Chapter 6

Monday

March 10

21. Form and function, sensory perception II: Eyes and vision; visual pigments and color vision.

 

Chapter 6

Wednesday

March 12

22. Form and function, sensory perception III: Electric organs and electroreception; object location and identification; electrocommunication.

 

Chapter 6

Friday

March 14

 

23. Biodiversity: Distribution and zoogeography; marine zoogeographic regions and barriers; dispersal versus vicariance.

 

Term paper due by 5:00 pm. Submit here.

 

Chapter 16

 

Wednesday

March 19

Comprehensive Final Examination 2:30-4:20 pm, FSH 102

● Grades and Grading ●

 

Lecture only

     

Lecture and laboratory

Points

Lecture Exam I

Lecture Exam II

Term Paper

Comprehensive Lecture Final

 

100

100

100

200

Lecture Exam I

Lecture Exam II

Term Paper

Comprehensive Lecture Final

 

100

100

100

200

 

 

Midterm Laboratory Exam

Laboratory Notebook

Term-Paper Presentation

Comprehensive Lab Final

 

100

100

100

200

 

Totals

500

1000

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXAMS: Three exams will be given: two mid-term lecture exams and a comprehensive final exam. The mid-term exams are scheduled for January 30 and February 27. The final exam will be given March 19 at 2:30.

 

TERM PAPER: Each student will be asked to produce a term paper that surveys the diversity and evolutionary relationships of a family of fishes.  Please download a description of this assignment.

 

 

● Helpful Files●

 

Course Information (PDF)

Phylogeny 1 (PDF)

Laboratory Schedule (PDF)

Phylogeny 2 (PDF)

Linnean Hierarchy

Phylogeny Tutorial (PDF)

Names and Naming (PDF)

Trees (PDF)

Geological Time (PDF)

Otoliths (PDF)

Scientific Terminology (PDF)

Fossil Fishes (PDF)

Anatomical Terminology (PDF)

Sample Exam (PDF)

Sample Term Paper (PDF)

Key to Lecture Exam 1 (PDF)

Key to Lecture Exam 2 (PDF)

 

● Links ●

 

SAFS Course Policy

UW Fish Collection

Web of Science (via UW Library)

Catalog of Fishes

FishBase

SAFS Homepage