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Chondrichthyes (/ k ɒ n ˈ d r ɪ k θ i iː z /; from Ancient Greek χόνδρος (khóndros) 'cartilage' and ἰχθύς (ikhthús) 'fish') is a class of jawed fish that contains the cartilaginous fish or chondrichthyans, which all have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage.
The olfactory lobes are very large in fish that hunt primarily by smell, such as hagfish, sharks, and catfish. Behind the olfactory lobes is the two-lobed telencephalon, the structural equivalent to the cerebrum in higher vertebrates. In fish the telencephalon is concerned mostly with olfaction. [59] Together these structures form the forebrain.
Bony fish can be further divided into those with lobe fins and those with ray fins. Lobe fins have the form of fleshy lobes supported by bony stalks which extend from the body. [16] Lobe fins evolved into the legs of the first tetrapod land vertebrates, so by extension an early ancestor of humans was a lobe-finned fish.
Golden-lined spinefoots form schools which decrease in size with the age of the fish and range from 10 to 25 fish in the adults, although they may from aggregations of several thousand fish when spawning. They feed on encrusting algae which they scrape off from beach rock or pavement areas of coral reefs, and on larger leafy algae. [2]
Osteichthyes (/ ˌ ɒ s t iː ˈ ɪ k θ iː z / ost-ee-IK-theez; from Ancient Greek ὀστέον (ostéon) 'bone' and ἰχθύς (ikhthús) 'fish'), [2] also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue.
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The front nostril has a flap, in juveniles this covers the rear nostril, although it becomes shorter as the fish grows and is completely absent in the oldest fishes. [8] The dorsal fin has 13 spines and 10 soft rays while the anal fin has 7 spines and 9 soft rays. [3] The front spine on the dorsal fin points forwards.
Rhenanida ("Rhine fish") were flattened, ray-like, bottom-dwelling predators with large, upturned mouths that lived in marine environments. The rhenanids were once presumed to be the most primitive, or at least the closest to the ancestral placoderm, as their armour was made of unfused components—a mosaic of tubercles—as opposed to the ...