The Actinopterygii, or ray-finned fishes, are the largest class of fishes. In existence for about 400 million years, since the Early Devonian, it consists of some 42 orders containing more than 480 families, at least 80 of which are known only from fossils. The class contains the great majority of known living and fossil fishes, with about 26,900 living species. The history of actinopterygians can be divided into three basic stages or evolutionary radiations, each representing a different level of structural organization and efficiency.

The Chondrostei may have first arisen as early as the Early Devonian, increased in numbers and complexity until about the Permian, and thereafter declined, becoming almost extinct by the middle of the Cretaceous, 100 million years ago. The chondrostean order Palaeonisciformes is the basal actinopterygian stock from which all other chondrosteans and the holosteans evolved. They were the most common fishes of their time, relatively small and typically like later fishes in appearance. In comparison with today’s fishes, they had peculiar-looking jaws and tails. Their tails were heterocercal. On their bodies were thick ganoid scales that abutted each other, rather than overlapping as in most modern fishes. Palaeonisciformes often had large eyes placed far forward, long mouths with the upper jaw firmly bound to the fully armoured cheek, and a relatively weak lower jaw muscle. They gave rise to a great variety of types, with elongate bodies and jaws, bottom-living types that fed on microorganisms, deep-bodied marine reef fishes, and coral-eating reef fishes. Almost all of these were replaced by modern teleosts. Surviving Chondrostei are the bottom-feeding marine and freshwater sturgeons, the strange plankton-feeding paddlefishes of the Mississippi River of North America and the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) of China, and the freshwater bichirs and reedfishes (family Polypteridae) of Africa. The relationship of the polypterids is in some doubt, and that group has sometimes been placed in the class Sarcopterygii.

Several of the chondrostean orders developed characteristics that approached the holostean level of anatomic organization and are sometimes called subholosteans. One of these orders, the Parasemionotiformes, evolved from the Palaeonisciformes in the Early Triassic and may have given rise to at least some of the holosteans. This evolutionary line leads to the Pholidophoriformes, which gave rise to modern bony fishes, or teleosts.

The holosteans are thought to be of mixed origin and represent a stage in the evolution of a group of chondrostean orders. Therefore, the infraclass or division Holostei does not represent a single lineage. Important holostean characteristics are the approach of the tail toward the homocercal condition and the equal number of fin rays and basal elements of the fin rays. Both of these conditions make the holostean a more efficient swimmer than the chondrostean, as does thinning of the holostean body scales. Another important advance of holosteans was the freeing of the upper jaw from the preopercular bone of the cheek, allowing greater movement of the gill chamber and jaws, with more powerful development of the lower jaw muscle.

Five orders of holosteans are known, with their greatest evolutionary radiation occurring during the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, when the chondrosteans were declining and the teleosts just beginning to expand. Two holostean groups survive today: the bowfin, Amia calva, and several species of gars, Lepisosteus, all found in North America. The current understanding of bony fish evolution recognizes the Amiiformes as the closest living relatives of the teleosts.

The modern bony fishes, infraclass or division Teleostei, include the great majority of living fishes. They first appear in the fossil record about 200 million years ago (as the family Leptolepididae), with their homocercal caudal fin and caudal skeleton already fully developed. They arose from an order of holosteans now extinct, the Pholidophoriformes. This group was intermediate in character between the chondrosteans and the teleosts. Teleosts reached their fullest extent within the last 50 million years and represent a distinct functional advance over their holostean ancestors. They have greater swimming ability, due to the improvement in the tail structure, and have a still more efficient feeding and gill-ventilating apparatus.

The bony fishes represent the culmination of a long evolution toward a body plan with maximum swimming efficiency. Particularly important in this evolution have been changes in fins and in the tail. Some authorities believe that the paired fins arose from a single continuous tail and anal fin that was divided at the vent and extended forward along each side to the head. Later the sections between the pectoral, pelvic, anal, and caudal fins were lost. The fin rays of sharks and rays are of a horny material, but those of many primitive fossil fishes are of bone. The bony fin rays of sarcopterygians and actinopterygians probably arose from scales lying in the fin folds. Modern teleost fishes have flexible fin rays (called soft rays) of jointed segments of bone, or spiny rays, each of solid continuous bone. The first dorsal fin of acanthopterygian fishes is of the spiny type.

The original tail fin of primitive fishes was not an effective swimming organ, because of its asymmetry. The steady improvement in tail shape over 400 million years is one of the prominent features of fish evolution. In primitive fishes the tail (vertebral) axis turned upward (heterocercal) or downward (hypocercal), and a lobe of flesh projected from it. This form of tail cannot provide a powerful driving mechanism, because the driving force is unevenly distributed relative to the body axis. With an asymmetrical tail, the fish swims by an undulating motion of the body and tail. In some fishes with a diphycercal tail (with the axis of the vertebrae extending down the middle of the fin lobe), developed in both modern and ancient fishes, the tail remains relatively ineffective because it has remained too rigid for proper propulsive action. The development of a true homocercal tail fin, in which powerful muscles move strong fin rays with a very flexible basal joint and in which the upper and lower lobes are about equal, is a development exclusive to teleost fishes.

As suggested by the existence of more than 400 families, teleosts are extremely varied in anatomical form and in the habitat occupied. They can be divided into about 12 superorders or subdivisions, each with distinct evolutionary significance. The Leptolepidimorpha, an extinct, relatively primitive group, has uncertain relationships with other teleosts and is as yet poorly understood. The second group, the superorder Osteoglossomorpha, consists of relatively primitive teleosts, most of which are now extinct. The few surviving members are mostly tropical and worldwide in distribution but adapted to restricted habitats. The third group, the Elopomorpha, retains some relatively primitive living members, such as the tarpons, but is mostly represented by the large variety of specialized true eels. The Clupeomorpha includes the herrings and anchovies, relatively primitive fishes, mostly specialized for existence near the surface of the open ocean. A few species are anadromous, breeding in freshwater environments but spending most of their lives in the sea. The Protacanthopterygii is a varied collection of relatively primitive orders, marine, deep-sea, and freshwater in distribution; trouts, smelts, and argentines are examples. The Ostariophysi are an important group of primarily freshwater fishes, including the characins, carps, minnows, loaches, suckers, and catfishes.

The remaining groups have a complex fossil history and are not yet fully understood, but all seem to possess similar evolutionary trends. Each group shows a tendency to develop spiny fin rays in the dorsal and anal fins (reduced in some) and a shelf of bone under the eye. There is a tendency for the pelvic fins to move forward on the body, with a reorganization of swimming methods and a slight gain in maneuverability. All three groups probably are related and presumably arose from some early protacanthopterygian-like ancestor. The Scopelomorpha include a wide variety of deep-sea open-ocean plankton feeders and predators, some of which bear light organs. The Paracanthopterygii are a rather miscellaneous collection of fishes, the most important to humans being the cods. The final superorder, the Acanthopterygii, is the result of the great radiation of modern spiny-rayed fishes and contains the dominant fishes in marine shore habitats, tropical, temperate, and Arctic. They also live in the freshwater environment, especially in lakes, slow-moving streams, and ponds. The superorder has some important open-ocean members, such as tunas. The key to the successful acanthopterygian radiation probably has been their mobile, protractile mouth.

Distinguishing taxonomic features

In forming hypotheses about the evolution of fishes and in establishing classifications based on these hypotheses, ichthyologists place special emphasis on the comparative study of the skeleton. There are two primary advantages of this approach. First, direct comparison between extant and fossil groups is possible, the latter usually represented only by bony remains. The second advantage is that the bones of living fishes are relatively easy to observe and to study, compared with other body structures. Proper preservation and special preparation of the nervous system, for example, are difficult and expensive when the fishes being compared are from the far ends of the Earth. In the study of the relationships of species within a group, major use has been made of similarities and differences in the dimensions of external features, such as head and body length, and of counts of external characters, such as teeth, fin rays, and scales. Colour pattern is also important. In recent years, valuable data on classification of fishes have been obtained from studies of comparative behaviour, physiology, genetics and functional anatomy.