Fishes have a more or less smooth, flexible skin dotted with various kinds of glands, both unicellular and multicellular. Mucus-secreting glands are especially abundant. Poison glands, which occur in the skin of many cartilaginous fishes and some bony fishes, are frequently associated with spines on the fins, tail, and gill covers. Photophores, light-emitting organs found especially in deep-sea forms, may be modified mucous glands. They may be used as camouflage or to permit recognition, either for repulsion to delimit territory or for attraction in courtship.

Also formed within the skin of many fishes are the skeletal elements known as scales (Figure 1). They may be divided into several types on the basis of composition and structure. Cosmoid scales, characteristic of extinct lungfishes and not found in any fishes today, are similar to the ganoid scales of living species. Placoid scales (or denticles) are spiny, toothlike projections seen only in cartilaginous fishes. Ganoid scales, sometimes considered a modification of the placoid type, are chiefly bony but are covered with an enamel-like substance called ganoin. These rather thick scales, present in some primitive bony fishes, are well developed in the gars.

Cycloid scales appear to be the inner layer of ganoid or cosmoid scales. Found in carps and similar fishes, they are thin, large, round or oval, and arranged in an overlapping pattern; growth rings are evident on the free edges. Ctenoid scales are similar to cycloid, except that they have spines or comblike teeth along their free edges; these scales are characteristic of the higher bony fishes—perches and sunfishes, for example. Some fishes, such as catfishes and some eels, have no scales.

Among the cartilaginous fishes, sharks have a very tough skin. Scattered over it are denticles, each with a pulp cavity, around the edge of which is a layer of odontoblasts. These cells secrete the dentine, or calcareous material, of the scale. Outside the dentine is the enamel, secreted by the overlying ectoderm. When the denticles pierce through the ectoderm, no more enamel can be added.

The dominant modern fishes, teleosts, are characterized by bony scales covered with skin. The epithelium of a trout’s epidermis provides the animal with an inert covering of keratin. The scales lie in the dermis as thin, overlapping plates with the exposed part bearing the pigment cells. The scale is deposited in a series of annual rings, since its growth occurs rapidly in spring and summer and rarely in winter.

Amphibians

Most modern amphibians lack horny scales or other protective devices. An exception is seen in the caecilians, a small group that has fishlike scales similar to those possessed by ancient and extinct forms. The amphibian epidermis has five to seven layers of cells formed from a basal stratum germinativum. At the skin surface, in contact with the external environment, the cells are keratinized to form a stratum corneum, which is best developed in amphibians that spend most of their time on land. The cells of this horny layer are not continuously shed but are periodically molted in sheets. Molting is controlled by the pituitary and thyroid glands but is unaffected by sex hormones. The wartiness of toads results from local thickenings.

Some amphibian families have disklike pads on their digits for adherence to underlying surfaces. During the breeding season the males of anurans (frogs and toads) and urodeles (salamanders and newts) develop nuptial pads on some digits of the forelimbs, which facilitate firm gripping of the females; the pads are induced to form by androgenic (male) hormones.

The dermis is two-layered, having an outer and looser stratum spongiosum and an inner stratum compactum. Although some amphibians have external gills or internal lungs, for many the skin is a vital respiratory organ, and the dermis is richly supplied with blood vessels and lymph spaces. Chromatophores are located just below the junction of the dermis with the epidermis. The numerous mucous and poison glands originate from nests of epidermal cells that grow down into the dermis.