LAB CH 6 and ch 7 exam - LAB CH 6: FINDING AND MEASURING...

LAB CH 6: FINDING AND MEASURING CHARACTERS
1. Would counting the number of eggs in ovary of a female be a good character?
Explain why/why not.
2. Might the shape of a fish’s otoliths be a good character? Explain why/why not? 3. Fish living in the cooler part of a species’ ranges often have a larger number of fin
rays or vertebrae than fish lining in the warmer part. How could you judge whether
this difference was more liegely ecophenotypic (under direct environmental control)
or genetically based?
4. Give reasons why metabolic rate as measured by oxygen consumption may not be a
good taxonomic character.
5. Basically in identifying a fish, how does the criterion of capture locality differ from
that of morphological distinctiveness?
6. What kinds of characters are useful in identifying living fish in their natural
habitat? Are these necessarily the same as the best characters to distinguish
preserved specimens?