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Article: The early evolution of ray-finned fishes

Publication: Palaeontology
Volume: 58
Part: 2
Publication Date: March 2015
Page(s): 213 228
Author(s): Matt Friedman
Addition Information

How to Cite

FRIEDMAN, M. 2015. The early evolution of ray-finned fishes. Palaeontology 58, 2, 213–228.

Author Information

Matt Friedman - Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (email: mattf@earth.ox.ac.uk)

Publication History

  • Issue published online: 5 MAR 2015
  • Article first published online: 9 FEB 2015
  • Manuscript Accepted: 24 DEC 2014
  • Manuscript Received: 19 NOV 2014

Funded By

Fell Fund of the University of Oxford
Leverhulme Trust
Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Numbers: NE/1005536/1, NE/J022632/1

Online Version Hosted By

Wiley Online Library (Free Access)
Get Article: Wiley Online Library [Free Access]

Abstract

Ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) constitute approximately half of all living vertebrate species. A stable hypothesis of relationships among major modern lineages has emerged over the past decade, supported by both anatomy and molecules. Diversity is unevenly partitioned across the actinopterygian tree, with most species concentrated within a handful of geologically young (i.e. Cretaceous) teleost clades. Extant non-teleost groups are portrayed as ‘living fossils’, but this moniker should not be taken as evidence of especially primitive structure: each of these lineages is characterized by profound specializations. Attribution of fossils to the crowns and apical stems of Cladistia, Chondrostei and Neopterygii is uncontroversial, but placements of Palaeozoic taxa along deeper branches of actinopterygian phylogeny are less secure. Despite these limitations, some major outlines of actinopterygian diversification seem reasonably clear from the fossil record: low richness and disparity in the Devonian; elevated morphological variety, linked to increases in taxonomic dominance, in the early Carboniferous; and further gains in taxonomic dominance in the Early Triassic associated with earliest appearance of trophically diverse crown neopterygians.

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