Jawless fishes are craniates (which includes all the chordate groups except the tunicates and lancelets) that represent an ancient vertebrate lineage that arose over one half-billion years ago. Some of the earliest jawless fishes were the ostracoderms (which translates as “shell-skin”). Ostracoderms, now extinct, were vertebrate fishes encased in bony armor, unlike present-day jawless fishes, which lack bone in their scales.
The clade Myxini includes 67 species of hagfishes. Hagfishes are eel-like scavengers that live on the ocean floor and feed on dead invertebrates, other fishes, and marine mammals (Figure 15.37). Hagfishes are entirely marine and are found in oceans around the world except for the polar regions. A unique feature of these animals is the slime glands beneath the skin that are able to release an extraordinary amount of mucus through surface pores. This mucus may allow the hagfish to escape from the grip of predators. Hagfish are known to enter the bodies of dead or dying organisms to devour them from the inside.
The skeleton of a hagfish is composed of cartilage, which includes a cartilaginous notochord, which runs the length of the body, and a skull. This notochord provides support to the fish’s body. Although they are craniates, hagfishes are not vertebrates, since they do not replace the notochord with a vertebral column during development, as do the vertebrates.
The clade Petromyzontidae includes approximately 40 species of lampreys. Lampreys are similar to hagfishes in size and shape; however, lampreys have a brain case and incomplete vertebrae. Lampreys lack paired appendages and bone, as do the hagfishes. As adults, lampreys are characterized by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. Some species are parasitic as adults, attaching to and feeding on the body fluids of fish (Figure 15.37). Most species are free-living.
Lampreys live primarily in coastal and fresh waters and have a worldwide temperate region distribution. All species spawn in fresh waters. Eggs are fertilized externally, and the larvae are distinctly different from the adult form, spending 3 to 15 years as suspension feeders. Once they attain sexual maturity, the adults reproduce and die within days. Lampreys have a notochord as adults.
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