About Lesson
Gills of bony fishes
- In bony fishes, gills are covered with an operculum that is made of flattened skeletal plates and there is no spiracle as in elasmobranchs.
- There are 4 pairs of gill pouches, each containing two demibranchs, making the total number of demibranchs in bony fishes as 8 pairs or four pairs of complete gills or holobranchs.
- Teleosts always breathe with their mouth open and eject expiratory water by opening the operculum.
- Gills in Chondrostei, Holostei, and the lungfish Neoceratodus exhibit a partial reduction in their interbranchial septa, which happens to be a somewhat intermediate condition between elasmobranchs and teleosts.