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All vertebrate jaws, including the human jaw, evolved from early fish jaws. The appearance of the early vertebrate jaw has been described as "perhaps the most profound and radical evolutionary step in the vertebrate history". [4] [5] Fish without jaws had more difficulty surviving than fish with jaws, and most jawless fish became extinct.
The Syngnathidae is a family of fish which includes seahorses, pipefishes, and seadragons (Phycodurus and Phyllopteryx). The name is derived from Ancient Greek: σύν (syn), meaning "together", and γνάθος (gnathos), meaning "jaw". [1] The fused jaw is one of the traits that the entire family have in common. [2]
Monognathus, or onejaw, is the only genus of the family Monognathidae of deep-sea eels.The name comes from the Greek monos meaning "one" and gnathos meaning "jaw", a reference to the large mouth in comparison with the rest of the fish, and also the absence of an upper jaw (maxilla and premaxilla bones are absent).
Osteichthyes (bone-fish) or bony fishes are a taxonomic group of fish that have bone, as opposed to cartilaginous skeletons. The vast majority of fish are osteichthyans, which is an extremely diverse and abundant group consisting of 45 orders, with over 435 families and 28,000 species. [21] It is the largest class of vertebrates in existence today.
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 wrasses have become a primary study species in fish-feeding biomechanics due to their jaw structures. The nasal and mandibular bones are connected at their posterior ends to the rigid neurocranium , and the superior and inferior articulations of the maxilla are joined to the anterior tips of these two bones, respectively, creating a loop of ...
Most fish species with pharyngeal teeth do not have extendable pharyngeal jaws. A particularly notable exception is the highly mobile pharyngeal jaw of the moray eels.These are possibly a response to their inability to swallow as other fishes do by creating a negative pressure in the mouth, perhaps induced by their restricted environmental niche (burrows) or in the air in the intertidal zone. [10]
These fishes exhibit a number of adaptations for feeding on large prey. The "open" structure of its jaws allows the fish to swing its entire head forward to grab prey from afar in addition to reducing water resistance, allowing them to be snapped shut more quickly, while large recurved teeth and powerful jaw muscles assure a secure hold.