teleost

Image of a Gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta, from Wikimedia Commons Teleost fish living in saltwater environments are constantly compensating for water loss. This happens because their surroundings have higher concentrations of salts than their plasma and the rule of thumb in Biology is: water follows salt.  Thus these fish must somehow compensate for water loss in order to prevent dehydration. One way they do this is by drinking a lot of water. Ions are then removed from the water in the intestines which creates a gradient for water absorption into the body. A new study published in the…
Siberian sturgeon in captivity Drs. Thomas Eliot Haworth and Holly Shiels (University of Manchester) teamed up with Drs. Jaakko Haverinen and Matti Vornanen (University of Eastern Finland) to explore how electrical signaling in the hearts of fish have evolved by comparing Teleost fish with sturgeons. Their findings were published this month in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. According to the study authors, there are currently approximately 27,000 species of ray-finned fishes which make up 99% of all fishes existing today. Teleost…