Now we have entered the world of vertebrate animals. All vertebrates descend from fish, and the diversity of lifestyles and behaviors in fish are unparalleled in vertebrates.

For our reading today is this course’s first example of a professional scientific paper, followed by a lay news article on it.

Reading: “Tropical Fish Diversity (Lefcheck et al 2019)”

Reading: “Fish Diversity (News on Lefcheck et al 2019)”

This video is an overview of the major groups of fish.

Video: “Vertebrate Diversity – The Fish (Craig Savage)” (15:16)

Works

Look for fish today if possible. What lives in the shallows? Fish (catch and release) if you wish. Look for fish eggs, partly eaten aquatic plants, and other signs of fish activity. Perhaps choose a place to go where you will be more likely to see certain fish of interest to you. Like the day on fungi, this day might be a day that you come back to if water bodies are frozen or if you do not live near much water.

~Follow a moving creature you might not encounter again~

TO NATURE

It may indeed be fantasy when I

Essay to draw from all created things

Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings;

And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie

Lessons of love and earnest piety.

So let it be; and if the wide world rings

In mock of this belief, it brings

Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.

So will I build my altar in the fields,

And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,

And the sweet fragrance that the wildflower yields

Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee,

Thee only God! and thou shalt not despise

Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice.

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)