BIOL
404/504
Ichthyology
Fish
Adaptation
Project
Fish
are adapted evolutionarily to succeed in their native habitats. To better understand the completeness of this adaptation,
each student will ÒevolveÓ a highly adapted fish species to thrive
in a foreign habitat. During
a fair and equitable lottery, students will choose a fish
species/foreign habitat pairing to work on throughout the semester.
Students will need to gather information on the fish, its
native habitat, and the foreign habitat to successfully ÒevolveÓ the
fish to survive in the new habitat.
ÒEvolutionÓ will focus on the following fish
characteristics/functions:
-
Body
size
-
Body
morphology
-
General
life style
-
Habitat
associations
-
Osmoregulation
-
Typical
behavior
-
Feeding/diet
-
Spawning
Each student will prepare a brief, 4-5 minute Powerpoint presentation on what ÒevolutionÓ would change in their fish to make them better adapted to their new habitat. Presentations will be made to the class for peer evaluation during the final lab period of the semester (April 23, 2024). Presentations will include an illustration of the species as it now exists and descriptions of how each of the above characteristics/functions would need to be modified to cope with the new environment. Additional characteristics may be included if time permits. No presentation will be allowed to continue beyond the 5 minute mark.
ASSIGNMENT UPDATE: Please submit your Adapt-A-Fish presentation to our D2L Brightspace class site in whatever format you are comfortable with using, that combines visuals and audio. Feel free to be creative, but make sure that you stick with the general assignment requirements for content and time length posted on our class website.
|
Species
Foreign Habitat |
|
|
Flathead catfish |
Anadromous within Hudson River estuary |
|
Walleye |
Amazon River delta |
|
Pacific seahorse |
West Lake Winona |
|
American eel |
Lake MI/Fox River |
|
American brook lamprey |
Great Salt Lake |
|
Brook stickleback |
Florida Keys nearshore |
|
Red-bellied piranha |
Yukon River, AK |
|
Halibut |
Mississippi River channel |
|
Atlantic flying fish |
Lake Onalaska |
|
Deepsea anglerfish |
Gilmore Creek |
|
Parrotfish |
Platte River, NE |
|
Atlantic hagfish |
Thunder Bay, L. Superior |
|
Hammerhead shark |
Lake Erie |
|
African lungfish |
Bering Sea |
|
Tarpon |
Wisconsin River |
|
Guppy |
Gulf of Mexico offshore |
|
Archerfish |
Sargasso Sea |
|
Angelfish |
Garvin Brook |
|
Clown anemonefish |
Green Bay |
|
Mudskipper |
Rio Grande River |
|
Blue marlin |
DevilÕs Lake, ND |
|
Ocean sunfish |
Mille Lacs Lake |
|
Bluefin tuna |
Lower Columbia River |