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 Most distinctive anatomical
feature of a fish.
Composed of bony spines or rays
protruding from the body with skin
covering them and joining them
together.
Either in a webbed fashion or to a
flipper seen.
WEBBED FASHION: In most of
Bony Fishes.
FLIPPER FASHION: As seen in
Shark.
PECTORAL
FIN
DORSAL
FIN
PELVIC FIN
CAUDAL FIN
ANAL FIN
Pectoral Fins are located on
both sides usually just behind the
operculum.
It is homologous to the
forelimbs of tetrapods .
It provides supports during
swimming.
It creates the dynamic lifting
force and also helps the fish to
turn left or right.
Located on the back .
A fish can have upto 3 dorsal fins ,i.e.
Proximal, Middle, Distal.
In rock hard,spinous fins the distal is
often fused to the middle or not present
at all.
Dorsal fins protect the fish against
rolling and stabilze them in water.
The bones that support the dorsal fin
are called Pterygiophore.
SINGLE
SPLIT
POINTED
TRIGGER
SPINE TRIANGULAR
TRAILING
Located ventrally below and behind the
pectoral fin
Homologous to hindlimbs of tetrapods.
The pelvic fin assists the fish in going up
and down through the water, turning
sharply.
In Gobies , the pelvic fin are often fused
into a single sucker disk. This can be used
to attach to objects.
Pelvic fins can take many positions along
the ventral surface of the fish.
The caudal fin is well developed in most
fishes
It plays the most important role in
forward propulsion during swimming.
In bottom dwelling rays, the caudal fin
tends to become reduced.
In the sting rays the caudal fin is lacking.
The caudal fin exhibits different shapes in
different groups of fishes correlated with
their habits.
PROTOCERCAL
CAUDAL FIN
HETEROCERCAL
CAUDAL FIN
HOMOCERCAL
CAUDAL FIN
This type of caudal fin is regarded to be the most
primitive type.
The vertebral column extends up to the tip of the tail
and divides the caudal fin into two equal halves.
The dorsal half is called epichordal lobe .
the ventral half is known as hypochordal lobe.
The epichordal and hypochordal parts of the caudal fin
are equal in size and symmetrical.
It occurs in modem cyclostomes, primitive sharks,
Holocephali (Chimaera), living Dipnoi (lung-fishes), living
crossopterygii (Latimeria), many larval teleosts and deep
sea fishes.
It is the intermediate type in which vertebral column
bends upwards and reaches up to the tip of the more
prominent dorsal lobe.
This makes the caudal fin strongly asymmetrical.
Heterocercal caudal fin is characteristic of bottom
feeders with ventral mouth and without swim-bladder
(air-bladder).
The strokes of larger dorsal lobe in swimming serve to
direct fish towards bottom.
This type of caudal fin is found in modem
elasmobranchs, extinct osteolepid crossopterygian
(Osteolepis), extinct dipnoans (Dipterus) and living
holosteans (Acipenser, Polyodon)
This is the advanced and most common type of
caudal fin.
The homocercal (Gr., homos = common, alike)
caudal fin is the characteristic of the higher bony
fishes (teleosts).
 It is symmetrical externally but internally it is
asymmetrical.
The posterior end of vertebral column is turned
upwards and becomes greatly reduced.
Located on the ventral surface behind the
Anus or Cloaca.
Supports the dorsal fin by providing the
fish with more stability in water controlling
the rolling motion.
This fin is also used to stabilibze the fish
while swimming.
FINS IN FISHES ZOOLOGY.pptx