Osteichthyes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bony fish Temporal range: Late Silurian - Recent |
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| Atlantic herring | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Infraphylum: | Gnathostomata |
| Superclass: | Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880 |
Osteichthyes are a taxonomic superclass of fish, also called bony fish that includes the ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) and lobe finned fish (Sarcopterygii). The split between these two classes occurred around 440 million of years. The Osteichthyes are paraphyletic with land vertebrates, in some classification schemes the tetrapods are considered to be members of the Osteichthyes for this reason. Osteichthyes are the most various group of vertebrates, consisting of over 29,000 species, making them the largest class of vertebrates in existence today.
