No Such Thing As A Fish

maceo

maceo

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I'm currently reading a QI book of facts and alarmingly one of these is that there's no such thing as a fish.

"The concept is merely a convenient umbrella term to describe an aquatic vertebrate that's not a mammal, a turtle or anything else. It's equivalent to calling bats or flying lizards 'birds' just because they fly.

The relationship between a lamprey and a shark is about the same as that between a salamander and a camel.

In the 16th century, seals, whales, crocodiles and even hippos were considered to be 'fish'.

And today we still have jellyfish, cuttlefish, starfish, crayfish and general shellfish!
 
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Paul Boote

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A whole lifetime wasted trying to catch precisely Nothing, then....
 
Titus

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So long as you enjoyed it and nobody got hurt it's no problem.
 
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bennygesserit

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maceo said:
I'm currently reading a QI book of facts and alarmingly one of these is that there's no such thing as a fish.

"The concept is merely a convenient umbrella term to describe an aquatic vertebrate that's not a mammal, a turtle or anything else. It's equivalent to calling bats or flying lizards 'birds' just because they fly.

The relationship between a lamprey and a shark is about the same as that between a salamander and a camel.

In the 16th century, seals, whales, crocodiles and even hippos were considered to be 'fish'.

And today we still have jellyfish, cuttlefish, starfish, crayfish and general shellfish!
Click to expand...

how come Roach and Bream hybridise so readily , even to the extent that their offspring may be fertile.
 
The bad one

The bad one

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bennygesserit said:
how come Roach and Bream hybridise so readily , even to the extent that their offspring may be fertile.
Click to expand...
Short answer is, the window for both spawning is very close and any hold ups due to water temperature drop and you get both species on the same spawning areas and hybridisation.
 
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bennygesserit

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TBO Colin

It wasn't really a question about how they hybridise , more a reply to Maceo.
If there is no such thing as fish , because they are all so diverse , why do they hybridise ? They do because they are so closeley alligned.

To quote TBO QI is talking bollox
 
maceo

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Well according to the book there are three distinct groups amongst 'fish' - one is cartilaginous (sp?) fish like sharks, one is bony fish like cod or carp and one is those with a skull but no spine like hagfish and lampreys. These are completely different biological groups from each other.

So I suppose that's why you can get hybrids within those three groups.

Interesting point about cuttlefish and jellyfish etc. though isn't it?


Technically speaking the fella who comes along in a little boat to get his crayfish traps (for the restaurants) is as much a "fisherman" as me. Similarly, the pearl diver in India is looking for a shellfish, so he's a "fisherman" also!

Here's confirmation of the fact from BBC Nature

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/by/fish
 
barbelboi

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I believe they mean that not all the creatures we call fish today descend from the same common ancestor such as mamals and birds. If we go back to most recent common ancestor of everything we now call fish , we find that they also were the ancestor of all four-legged land vertebrates, which obviously aren’t fish at all. So, it’s probably a term to use with caution...................
 
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