Over two thirds of the earth's surface is covered by water, and adaptation to the aquatic habitats dominated the first 150 to 200 million years of vertebrate development. More than half the living ...vertebrates are aquatic. Fish have evolved to colonise almost every type of aquatic habitat, and today they are a hugely diverse group of about 25,000 species. Evolution of this great diversity has resulted in fascinatingly different designs for special modes of life as well as solutions to the problems common to them all. Comparisons help to reveal the biological and physiological compromises fish have to make to satisfy the often conflicting demands on their lives. Today fish are found in almost every imaginable watery habitat, which include the shallows and depths of the oceans, coastal waters and estuaries, rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and ephemeral water bodies. Many species inhabit freezing waters in polar regions whilst others thrive in ponds fed by thermal springs. Some have abandoned the water and become air breathers. Tunas in the open oceans swim rapidly and outperform their prey. How do they generate the forces required for high-speed swimming? Study of these fish shows that they have large masses of warmed red muscle, and that the required amounts of oxygen are delivered by unusually efficient respiratory and circulatory systems. Some freshwater carp are able to survive the long periods of very low oxygen levels that periodically occur in some ponds and lakes. How is their metabolism switched from aerobic to anaerobic pathways? The challenges of living in a particular environment are in part met by adaptations of body form and physiological function. Yet there are wider and equally important questions, such as why are these species successful in their particular environments? Answers to such questions may be found in the study of behaviour, in the dynamics of populations, in the ecology of the species and in evolutionary theory.
