SZL102: Class Osteichthyes (Bony fish)

An example of this class would be a Perch and sea horse.

- Osteichthyes is a class of fishes included in the division Gnathostomata, which includes all
the vertebrates having jaws.
- Osteichthyes have a bony endoskeleton. It is the largest class of vertebrates and includes a
diverse group of marine and freshwater bony fishes.
• With more than 29,000 species of bony fishes, it is the largest class of vertebrates.
• The size ranges from less than 8 mm in Paedocypris progenetica, which is also the smallest
known vertebrate, to 4 m and weigh about 1500 kg in the ocean sunfish (Mola mola).
• Paired fins are present, which are supported by long rays of cartilage or bone.
• Fleshy lobed fins are present in sarcopterygians. These types of fins are supported by
bones having joints. These are adapted to live at the bottom of the sea.
• The tail is mostly homocercal.
• They have a swim bladder or air bladder, which provides buoyancy to them and prevents
sinking. The swim bladder also facilitates gaseous exchange.
• The mouth is terminal.
• Bony fishes contain four pairs of gills.
• A protective covering of a bony flap known as the operculum protects the gills.
• The subclass sarcopterygians (lungfishes) lobe-finned fishes have lungs.
• The skin is covered by bony dermal scales known as ganoid, cycloid or ctenoid scales.
• They are poikilotherms or cold-blooded animals and lack the capacity to regulate their
internal body temperature. Some of the larger marine fishes like tuna, swordfish, etc. show
some level of endothermy.
• The heart is two-chambered, contains one auricle and one ventricle.
• Lungfishes have a three-chambered heart with a partially divided auricle and one ventricle.
• The brain has a small olfactory lobe and cerebellum.
• There are ten pairs of cranial nerves present.
• The lateral line organ contains hydrodynamic receptors. The sensory unit is called
neuromasts. It helps in sensing vibration, water pressure, navigation and locating their
prey.
• Cloaca is absent, different genital and anal openings are present.
• They are ammonotelic and have mesonephric kidneys.
• Sexes are mostly separate but some are hermaphrodites.
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 • They are mostly oviparous and lay a large number of eggs.
• Fertilization is mostly external and development is direct.
• In the male Hippocampus, the brood pouch is present, where eggs incubate.
Osteichthyes is subdivided into two subclasses:
1. Sarcopterygii- lobe-finned fish
2. Actinopterygii- ray-finned fish
Subclass: Actinopterygii (Ray-finned fishes)
Examples
Marine bony fishes
• Hippocampus (Sea horse)
• Exocetus (Flying fish)
• Lophius (Angler fish)
Freshwater bony fishes
• Labeo rohita (Rohu)
• Labeo catla (Katla)
• Clarias (Walking catfish or Magur)
• Mystus (Catfish)
Aquarium bony fishes
• Betta splendens (Fighting fish)
• Pterophyllum (Angelfish)

• Actinopterygii, are the largest subclass of bony fish

• These fishes are characterized by the presence of thin, paired fins supported by dermal
rays.
• They have fins with rays or spines
• Ray-finned fish make up over 50% of the planet's living vertebrate species.
• They are also some of the oldest, having evolved over 400 million years ago.
• Actinopterygii consists of 42 orders and 480 families of living and fossil fish.
• 96% of all fish in the ocean are classified as ray-finned fish.
• Although they all have the characteristic paired ray fins, these fish come in all shapes and
sizes.
• They can be as small as a goldfish or as large as a bluefin tuna.
• They can live in shallow lakes, like a minnow, or the deepest parts of the ocean, like an
angler fish. Below is a list of examples of ray-finned fish.
• Salmon
• Seahorse
• Eels
• Sturgeon
• Trout
• Carp
• Swordfish
• Anglerfish
• Haddock
• Tuna
• Anchovies
Actinopterygii Characteristics
Ray-finned fish are characterized by the presence of paired ray fins.
• These fins are supported by a web of dermal tissue between the parallel bony rays. In
contrast with cartilaginous fish, ray-finned fish have a rigid skeleton made of bones.
• Ray-finned fish are jawed fish, meaning they possess a jaw that has modified to become
larger and more capable of suction. This made the fish better predators over evolutionary
time.
• Other characteristics of Actinopterygii include the swim bladder, an organ that fills with
gas to maintain buoyancy as they swim.

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 • They also have a gill cover, which pumps water across the gills and enables them to breathe
without actively swimming.
• Ray-finned fish have a ''lateral line.'' A lateral line is a long, fluid-filled canal on either
side of the body. This sensory organ is helpful in detecting movements in the water.

Pescada Cambucu is an example of a ray-finned fish.

Ray-Finned Fish Habitat
• The habitat of Actinopterygii varies greatly. Ray-finned fish are found in every aquatic
ecosystem.
• They live in salt water, such as the oceans and seas, and freshwater, such as lakes and
ponds.
• They can be found in cold waters, such as the Arctic, and warm tropical waters, such as
Caribbean reefs.
• Ray-finned fish live in the deepest parts of the ocean, such as the Mariana Trench, and in
shallow streams and rivers.
• For example, the Royal gramma lives primarily in the deep reefs of the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles south, the Bathydraconidae lives in the deep waters of
Antarctica.
Ray-Finned Fish Behavior
• Many fish within the Actinopterygii class exhibit migratory behavior.
• Migrations can be daily, for the purposes of feeding or predator avoidance, or seasonal,
for the purpose of reproduction.
• Some ray-finned fish even migrate between salt and freshwater throughout their lifespan.
• Anadromous ray-finned fish spend most of their life in saltwater before migrating to
freshwater to spawn.
• Catadromous ray-finned fish spend most of their lives in freshwater before moving to
saltwater to spawn.
• Although many ray-finned fish migrate far outside of their home range, they have an
incredible ability to navigate back home. For example, salmon can use olfactory and
visual clues as well as an understanding of currents, water temperatures, and salinity to
navigate hundreds of kilometers to navigate back to the river they were born in.
• Ray-finned fish also exhibit social behaviors.
• They commonly gather into shoals for feeding, protection, and reproduction. Some shoals
act as a synchronized group referred to as a ''school.'' For example, minnows exist in schools
throughout their lifetime.
• This helps protect them from predators. 25% of all ray-finned fish species shoal throughout
their lifetime, and 50% shoal at one point during their lifetime.
• Ray-finned fish can be herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, zooplanktivores, or
detritivores.
• Predator ray-finned fish have many different methods of predation. For example, some are
aggressive, some lie in wait, and some use luminous bait to attract their prey.
• Prey ray-finned fish have many different methods to avoid predation. Some use school and
other camouflage.
• Ray-finned fish are classified as opportunistic feeders, meaning they eat whatever is
around them, especially when food is limited.
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Subclass: Sarcopterygii (Lobe-finned fishes)
• The characteristic that seems to define sarcopterygians (lobe-finned fish) is the fleshy fins
that are joined to the body by a single bone.
• The articulations of the fins of sarcopterygians resemble those of land vertebrates.
• Lobe-finned fishes also have two dorsal fins, each arising from different bases.
• The Class Sarcopterygii, contains only a few living representatives – the coelacanth and
six species of lungfish.
• The relative scarcity of these fishes around the world may indicate an unsuccessful
evolutionary history.
• Yet, a relative of this group is thought to have given rise to terrestrial vertebrates, which
come only second in vertebrate diversity to the ray-finned fishes.
• They are distinguished from the Actinopterygians or ray-finned fish by their muscular
fins with articulating bones.
• The fins are called lobe fins because they are fleshy and like the limbs of land
animals, rather than the fins of familiar "ray-finned" fish. The lobe fins swivel on a
shoulder or hip socket (like a tetrapod limb) and most of the bones can be matched
directly to the bones in the limbs of land animals.
• Even the individual rays in the fin can be moved individually, like toes.
• It is easy to see how everything fit together in giving the Sarcopterygii a transitional
role between jawed fish and the Tetrapoda.
• There are traditionally three main groups of Sarcopterygii, the Crossopterygia no
longer regarded as a valid taxon), the Coelocanths, once an important group but now
limited to a single large deepwater genus, and the lungfishes (Dipnoi), which are
capable of breathing air and surviving out of water.
• Sarcopterygii are also distinguished by a dermal or external (scaly) skeleton
characterized by the shiny dermal tissue cosmine, a feature secondarily lost in all
advanced lineages, and by the presence of unique tooth materials, such as enameloid
on the teeth of predatory forms, and mineralized dentines, such as petrodentine, in
the tooth plate and denticles of lungfishes.
• Freshwater types continued to flourish, including the rhizodonts and lungfish.
• The rhizodonts were large predators, sometimes attaining a length of several meters.
By the Mesozoic, the coelacanths were less common in the seas, and only
the lungfish remained as important inhabitants of rivers and lakes.
• Living lungfish are virtually unchanged from their Mesozoic ancestors. The living
Australian Neoceratodus) in particular is a true "living fossil".
• Today only a few species of extant lungfish (Dipnoi) and the
coelacanth Latimeria remain, the last survivors of a once flourishing group.
Taxonomy of Living Lobe-finned fishes
• Lungfish are found in muddy waters of Africa and South America and only a handful of
people have ever seen a living Coelacanth. But, because of their unique similarity to us,
both in their bony fins and their respiratory adaptations, they’re a popular topic for scientific
discussion and a relatively good deal is known about them.
• Notice that lungfish and tetrapods are closer related to each other than lungfish and
coelacanths. The following are the living orders:
Order Coelacanthimorpha – Coelacanths
Order Ceratodontiformes – Australian Lungfish
Order Lepidosireniformes – African and South American Lungfish
Coelacanths (Order Coelacanthimorpha)
• At some stage, there was a single lobe-finned fish whose progeny over millions of years
became the different species we know today. At the time of their diversification (a time
known as the Devonian), lobe-finned fish were taking refuge in freshwater.

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• It is believed that the predatory placoderms that roamed the ocean were putting significant
evolutionary pressure on other fish. One lobe-finned fish however, never left the ocean.
We know it as the Coelacanth.
• Coelacanths were thought to be extinct until several were found in the early part of the
19th century off the eastern coast of Africa between Mozambique and the Seychelles.
The most famous place for Coelacanth discovery are the French colonial islands known as
the Comoros.
• The reason Coelacanths were discovered only recently, was due in part to the fact that they
live in deep waters.
• Only rarely do they ever venture into depths that humans might be able to see them.
• On only a few occasions have divers seen coelacanths.
Order Ceratodontiformes- Australian Lungfish and Order Lepidosireniformes- South
American lungfish)- Dipnois
• The six species of living lungfish are but a few species that obtain oxygen in ways other
than their gills.
• They have a pair of lungs similar to primitive land vertebrates.
• Lungfish typically live in freshwater habitats that are prone to drying out in dry
seasons.
• Unlike other fish that require water to ‘breathe’, lungfish can survive in moist burrows for
extended periods of time.
• Thus, their adaptation to breathe air has allowed them to survive when the water dries
up.