Bony Fishes

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Osteichthyes (/ˌɒstiːˈɪxθi. iːz/), popularly referred to as the bony fish (IPA: /ˈbɔːniː fiʃ/), is a diverse taxonomic group of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue, and comprising the majority of modern fishes.


Traditionally, we recognize as "fishes" all aquatic vertebrates with gills and fins. This, however, is a purely typological definition and not necessarily phylogenetic (based on the evolutionary history and relationships between species) because it gathers very different kinds of animals, some of them lacking bony skeletons or jaws. We can find fish in almost all water bodies as well as in the oceans. We know today over 33,000 species, but the diversity of fish in the past was higher than in the present: many lineages completely disappeared over time, and today they are known only by their fossil remains and traces.

List of Bony Fishes

Uncertain

Recent taxonomic investigations clearly occur among them, despite the fact that some scientists still believe that the living Osteichthyes are only superficially related and that many of these similarities are likely shared basal traits with ancient vertebrates.


Coelacanths (Actinistia)

The Coelacanths (order Coelacanthiformes) are an ancient group of lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii) in the class Actinistia. The coelacanth was long considered a "living fossil" because scientists thought it was the sole remaining member of a taxon otherwise known only from fossils, with no close relations alive, and that it evolved into roughly its current form approximately 400 million years ago. They are found along the coastlines of the Indian Ocean and Indonesia.


Lungfishes (Dipnoi)

The class Dipnoi includes freshwater animals like lungfish. Lungfish are best recognized for preserving ancestral Osteichthyes features, such as the capacity for air breathing, and ancestral Sarcopterygii architecture, such as the existence of lobed fins with an established internal skeleton.


Tarrasids (Tarasiiformes)

The Tarasiiformes is an extinct order of prehistoric ray-finned fish.


Bichirs (Cladistia)

A Cladistia is a clade of bony fishes whose only living members are the bichirs. Their major synapomorphies are a heterocercal tail in which the dorsal fin has independent rays, and a posteriorly elongated parasphenoid. All the species occur in freshwater habitats in tropical Africa and the Nile River system, mainly swampy, shallow floodplains and estuaries.


South American Knifefishes (Gymnotiformes)

The Gymnotiformes are an order of teleost bony fishes commonly known as Neotropical knifefish or South American knifefish. They have long bodies and swim using undulations of their elongated anal fin. Found almost exclusively in fresh water (the only exceptions are species that occasionally may visit brackish water to feed), these mostly nocturnal fish are capable of producing electric fields to detect prey, for navigation, communication, and, in the case of the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), attack and defense.


Milkfishes (Gonorynchiformes)

The Gonorynchiformes are an order of ray-finned fish that includes the important food source, the milkfish, hingemouths, beaked salmons, and shellears, and a number of lesser-known types, both marine and freshwater. Gonorynchiformes have small mouths and no teeth. They are the sole group in the clade Anotophysi, a subgroup of the superorder Ostariophysi. They are characterized by a primitive Weberian apparatus formed by the first three vertebrae and one or more cephalic ribs within the head. This apparatus is believed to be a hearing organ, and is found in a more advanced and complex form in the related cypriniform fish, such as carp. However, there are at least five extinct genera from the Early Cretaceous period to Paleocene epoch as a living fossils. The Gonorynchiform is an important seafood in Southeast Asia, Africa, and some Pacific Islands. Because it is notorious for being much bonier than other food fish, deboned milkfish, called "boneless bangus" in the Philippines, has become popular in stores and markets.


Salmons (Salmoniformes)

The Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefishes, graylings, taimens and lenoks, which are collectively known as the salmonids ("salmon-related fish"). The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), whose Latin name became that of its genus Salmo, is also the eponym of the family and order names.


Clownfish (Amphiprioninae)

The Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus Premnas, while the remaining are in the genus Amphiprion. In the wild, they all form symbiotic mutualisms with sea anemones.


Carps (Cyprinidae)

The Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family, including the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives the barbs and barbels, among others. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family, and the largest vertebrate animal family overall, with about 3,000+ species.