Actinopterygii

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Ray-finned fish
Temporal range:
Ma[1]
Electric eelRed-bellied piranhaSockeye salmonPeacock flounderAtlantic codSpotted garYellowfin tunaSpotfin lionfishFanfinJapanese pineconefishAmerican paddlefishStriped marlinQueen angelfishNorthern pikeLong-spine porcupinefishLeafy seadragonWels catfishTwo-banded seabream
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Osteichthyes
Class: Actinopterygii
Klein, 1885
Subclasses

Actinopterygii (

articulation
between these fins and the internal skeleton (e.g., pelvic and pectoral girdles).

The vast majority of actinopterygians are

freshwater and marine environments from the deep sea to subterranean waters to the highest mountain streams. Extant species can range in size from Paedocypris, at 8 mm (0.3 in); to the massive ocean sunfish, at 2,300 kg (5,070 lb); and to the giant oarfish, at 11 m (36 ft). The largest ever known ray-finned fish, the extinct Leedsichthys from the Jurassic
, has been estimated to have grown to 16.5 m (54 ft).

Characteristics

gonopodium
)

Ray-finned fishes occur in many variant forms. The main features of typical ray-finned fish are shown in the adjacent diagram.

The

lobe-finned fish have retained the ancestral condition of ventral budding from the foregut, the swim bladder in ray-finned fishes derives from a dorsal bud above the foregut.[6][5] In early forms the swim bladder could still be used for breathing, a trait still present in Holostei (bowfins and gars).[7] In some fish like the arapaima, the swim bladder has been modified for breathing air again,[8] and in other lineages it have been completely lost.[9]

Ray-finned fishes have many different types of

ganoid scales, which are found in non-teleost actinopterygians, new scales are added in concentric layers as the fish grows.[10]

Teleosts and chondrosteans (sturgeons and paddlefish) also differ from the bichirs and holosteans (bowfin and gars) in having gone through a whole-genome duplication (paleopolyploidy). The WGD is estimated to have happened about 320 million years ago in the teleosts, which on average has retained about 17% of the gene duplicates, and around 180 (124–225) million years ago in the chondrosteans . It has since happened again in some teleost lineages, like Salmonidae (80–100 million years ago) and several times independently within the Cyprinidae (in goldfish and common carp as recently as 14 million years ago). [11][12][13][14][15]

Body shapes and fin arrangements

Ray-finned fish vary in size and shape, in their feeding specializations, and in the number and arrangement of their ray-fins.

Reproduction

Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) males (red belly) build nests and compete to attract females to lay eggs in them. Males then defend and fan the eggs. Painting by Alexander Francis Lydon, 1879

In nearly all ray-finned fish, the sexes are separate, and in most species the females spawn eggs that are fertilized externally, typically with the male inseminating the eggs after they are laid. Development then proceeds with a free-swimming larval stage.

Protandry, where a fish converts from male to female, is much less common than protogyny.[17]

Most families use external rather than internal fertilization.[18] Of the oviparous teleosts, most (79%) do not provide parental care.[19] Viviparity, ovoviviparity, or some form of parental care for eggs, whether by the male, the female, or both parents is seen in a significant fraction (21%) of the 422 teleost families; no care is likely the ancestral condition.[19] The oldest case of viviparity in ray-finned fish is found in Middle Triassic species of Saurichthys.[20] Viviparity is relatively rare and is found in about 6% of living teleost species; male care is far more common than female care.[19][21] Male territoriality "preadapts" a species for evolving male parental care.[22][23]

There are a few examples of fish that self-fertilise. The mangrove rivulus is an amphibious, simultaneous hermaphrodite, producing both eggs and spawn and having internal fertilisation. This mode of reproduction may be related to the fish's habit of spending long periods out of water in the mangrove forests it inhabits. Males are occasionally produced at temperatures below 19 °C (66 °F) and can fertilise eggs that are then spawned by the female. This maintains genetic variability in a species that is otherwise highly inbred.[24]

Classification and fossil record

Actinopterygii is divided into the classes

Teleostei. During the Mesozoic (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous) and Cenozoic the teleosts in particular diversified widely. As a result, 96% of living fish species are teleosts (40% of all fish species belong to the teleost subgroup Acanthomorpha), while all other groups of actinopterygians represent depauperate lineages.[25]

The classification of ray-finned fishes can be summarized as follows:

  • Cladistia, which include bichirs and reedfish
  • Actinopteri, which include:
    • Chondrostei, which include Acipenseriformes (paddlefishes and sturgeons)
    • Neopterygii, which include:
      • Teleostei (most living fishes)
      • Holostei, which include:
        • Lepisosteiformes (gars)
        • Amiiformes (bowfin)

The

millions of years, mya) are from Near et al., 2012.[26]

Vertebrates

The polypterids (bichirs and reedfish) are the sister lineage of all other actinopterygians, the Acipenseriformes (sturgeons and paddlefishes) are the sister lineage of Neopterygii, and Holostei (bowfin and gars) are the sister lineage of teleosts. The Elopomorpha (eels and tarpons) appear to be the most basal teleosts.[26]

The earliest known

Era.[26]

Chondrostei
Teleostei than their external appearance might suggest.[33]
Neopterygii
electroreception and the ampullae of Lorenzini is present in all other groups of fish, with the exception of hagfish, neopterygians have lost this sense, though it later re-evolved within Gymnotiformes and catfishes, who possess nonhomologous teleost ampullae.[34]
Fossil of the Carboniferous elonichthyiform Elonichthys peltigerus
Fossil of the Permian aeduelliform Aeduella blainvillei
Fossil of the Permian palaeonisciform Palaeoniscum freieslebeni
Fossil of the Triassic bobasatraniiform Bobasatrania canadensis
Fossil of the Triassic perleidiform Thoracopterus magnificus
prohaleciteiform Prohalecites sp., the earliest teleosteomorph
Fossil of the Jurassic pachycormiform Pachycormus curtus
Fossil of the Cretaceous acipenseriform Yanosteus longidorsalis
Fossil of the Cretaceous aulopiform Nematonotus longispinus
Fossil of the Cretaceous ichthyodectiform Thrissops formosus
Fossil of the Eocene carangiform Mene oblonga
pleuronectiform Amphistium paradoxum
Lower Eocene
about 50 million years ago
Fossil of the Miocene syngnathiform Nerophis zapfei
Skeleton of the angler fish, Lophius piscatorius. The first spine of the dorsal fin of the anglerfish is modified so it functions like a fishing rod with a lure
Skeleton of another ray-finned fish, the lingcod
Blue catfish skeleton

Taxonomy

The listing below is a summary of all

ITIS[36] and FishBase[37] and extinct groups from Van der Laan 2016[38] and Xu 2021.[39]

References