Canadian Medical Guide > Organisms > Animals > Chordata > Vertebrates > Fishes Terms and Definitions
Fishes
Medical Definition: | A group of cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates having gills, fins, a cartilaginous or bony endoskeleton, and elongated bodies covered with scales. |
Guide Notes: | GEN or unspecified; prefer specifics; canned fish: see note on FISH PRODUCTS |
Batrachoidiformes - An order of bottom fishes with short, small, spinous dorsal fins. It is comprised of one family (Batrachoididae) and about 70 species. | |
Catfishes - Common name of the order Siluriformes. This order contains many families and over 2,000 species, including venomous species. Heteropneustes and Plotosus genera have dangerous stings and are aggressive. Most species are passive stingers. | |
Cypriniformes - An order of fish with 26 families and over 3,000 species. This order includes the families CYPRINIDAE (minnows and CARPS), Cobitidae (loaches), and Catostomidae (suckers). | |
Eels - Common name for an order (Anguilliformes) of voracious, elongate, snakelike teleost fishes. | |
Elasmobranchii - A subclass of cartilaginous fish comprising the SHARKS, rays, skates (SKATES (FISH)), and sawfish. Elasmobranchs are typically predaceous, relying more on smell (the olfactory capsules are relatively large) than sight (the eyes are relatively small) for obtaining their food. | |
Electric Fish - Fishes which generate an electric discharge. The voltage of the discharge varies from weak to strong in various groups of fish. The ELECTRIC ORGAN and electroplax are of prime interest in this group. They occur in more than one family. | |
Esociformes - An order of fishes native to North America and Northern Eurasia, consisting of two familes: ESOCIDAE (pikes) and UMBRIDAE (mudminnows). | |
Fishes, Poisonous | |
Flatfishes - Common name for the order Pleuronectiformes. A very distinctive group in that during development they become asymmetrical, i.e., one eye migrates to lie adjacent to the other. They swim on the eyeless side. FLOUNDER, sole, and turbot, along with several others, are included in this order. | |
Lampreys - Common name for the only family (Petromyzontidae) of eellike fish in the order Petromyzontiformes. They are jawless but have a sucking mouth with horny teeth. | |
Osmeriformes - An order of fish including smelts, galaxiids, and salamanderfish. | |
Perciformes - The most diversified of all fish orders and the largest vertebrate order. It includes many of the commonly known fish such as porgies, croakers, sunfishes, dolphin fish, mackerels, TUNA, etc. | |
Salmoniformes - An order of fish comprising salmons, trouts, whitefish, graylings, and other families. They are both marine and freshwater fish, found in all oceans and are quite numerous in the Northern Hemisphere. (From Nelson: Fishes of the World) | |
Smegmamorpha - Group of fish under the superorder Acanthopterygii, separate from the PERCIFORMES, which includes swamp eels, mullets, sticklebacks, seahorses, spiny eels, rainbowfishes, and KILLIFISHES. The name is derived from the six taxa which comprise the group. (From https://www.nanfa.org/articles/Elassoma/elassoma.htm, 8/4/2000) | |
Tetraodontiformes - A small order of primarily marine fish containing 340 species. Most have a rotund or box-like shape. TETRODOTOXIN is found in their liver and ovaries. |
Fishes Medical Definitions and Terms
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