Actinopterygii, members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of skin supported by radially extended thin bony spines called lepidotrichia, as opposed to the bulkier, fleshy lobed fins of the sister class Sarcopterygii. Resembling folding fans, the actinopterygian fins can easily change shape and wetted area, providing superior thrust-to-weight ratios per movement compared to sarcopterygian and chondrichthyian fins. The fin rays attach directly to the proximal or basal skeletal elements, the radials, which represent the articulation between these fins and the internal skeleton.
The Gonorynchiformes are an order of ray-finned fish that includes the important food source, the milkfish, and a number of lesser-known types, both marine and freshwater.
Chanidae is a family of fishes which has a number of fossil genera and one monotypic extant genus which contains the milkfish.
Gonorynchidae is a family of ray-finned fish in the order Gonorynchiformes, which has a number of fossil taxa and one extant genus, Gonorynchus, the beaked salmons. They are an ancient group, with fossils known from as far back as the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous.
Dapedium is an extinct genus of primitive neopterygian ray-finned fish. The first-described finding was an example of D. politum, found in the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis, on the Jurassic Coast of England. Dapedium lived in the late Triassic and Jurassic periods.
Ichthyodectiformes is an extinct order of marine stem-teleost ray-finned fish. The order is named after the genus Ichthyodectes, established by Edward Drinker Cope in 1870. Ichthyodectiforms are usually considered to be some of the closest relatives of the teleost crown group.
Belonostomus is a genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish that was described by Louis Agassiz in 1844. It is a member of the order Aspidorhynchiformes, a group of fish known for their distinctive elongated rostrums.
Aspidorhynchiformes is an extinct order of ray-finned fish. It contains only a single family, the Aspidorhynchidae. Members of the group are noted for their elongated, conical rostrums, of varying length, formed from fused premaxillae. The range of the group extends from the Middle Jurassic to the late Paleocene.
Pachythrissops is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish. It contains two species, P. laevis from the Purbeckian of England and P. propterus from the Tithonian of Germany. A third species, P. vectensis, has been reassigned to the elopiform genus Arratiaelops. Pachythrissops is often regarded as one of the most primitive members of the order Ichthyodectiformes; however, a phylogenetic analysis by Cavin et al. (2013) placed it and the related genus Ascalabothrissops outside the group.
Baleiichthys is a genus of extinct freshwater ray-finned fish, belonging to the teleosts. It lived in the Middle Jurassic, and its fossil remains have been found in northern Asia. Almost nothing is known about it.
Aethalionopsis is an extinct genus of prehistoric freshwater bony fish from the Early Cretaceous of western Europe. Formerly classified as a species of the elopiform Anaethalion, it is now known to be a relative of the modern milkfish (Chanos) in order Gonorhynchiformes. It was previously placed as a basal member of the suborder Chanoidei, but is now more often placed as a basal member of the subfamily Chaninae of the family Chanidae, placing it closer to the extant Chanos.
Caeus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish, closely related to the modern milkfish. It contains a single species, C. leopoldi from the Early Cretaceous of the Pietraroja Plattenkalk, Italy. It is one of the largest teleosts known from the Pietraroja formation, and is known by only a single specimen.
Crossognathiformes is an extinct order of ray-finned fish that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Eocene. Its phylogenetic placement is disputed; some authors have recovered it as part of the teleost stem group, while others place it in a basal position within crown group Teleostei.
This list of fossil fishes described in 2013 is a list of new taxa of placoderms, fossil cartilaginous fishes and bony fishess of every kind that have been described during the year 2013. The list only includes taxa at the level of genus or species.
This list of fossil fish described in 2018 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fish, bony fish, and other fish of every kind that are scheduled to be described during the year 2018, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of fish that are scheduled to occur in 2018.
Orthogonikleithrus is a genus of extinct ray-finned fish that lived during the Late Jurassic period. It lived in lagoonal and restricted shallow subtidal zones.
This list of fossil fishes described in 2019 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes, and other fishes of every kind that were described during the year 2019, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoichthyology that occurred in 2019.
This list of fossil fishes described in 2020 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes, and other fishes of every kind that were described during the year 2020, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoichthyology that occurred in 2020.
The Sainte-Barbe Clays Formation is a geological formation in Belgium. It is found in localised areas of the northern margin of the Mons Basin, alongside the equivalently aged Hautrage and Baudour Clay Formations. It is Upper Barremian-Lower Aptian in age. It predominantly consists of laminated clay, with some lignite. It is well known for the "Iguanodon sinkhole" locality near Bernissart where many specimens of Iguanodon bernissartensis were described by Louis Dollo in the late 19th century.
Pholidophoridae is an extinct family of primitive stem-teleost fish that lived during the Triassic period, from the Anisian age of the Middle Triassic to the Norian age of the Late Triassic. Most of the genera are from Europe, but one (Malingichthys) is known from China. The pholidophorids were historically united with several other stem-teleost lineages into the order Pholidophoriformes, but Pholidophoriformes in its traditional sense is now considered paraphyletic with respect to crown group teleosts.
