Evolution of fish

The evolution of fish began about 530 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion. It was during
this time that the early chordates developed the skull and the vertebral column, leading to the
first craniates and vertebrates. The first fish lineages belong to the Agnatha, or jawless fish. Early
examples include Haikouichthys. During the late Cambrian, eel-like jawless fish called the conodonts,
and small mostly armoured fish known as ostracoderms, first appeared. Most jawless fish are now extinct;
but the extant lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. Lampreys belong to the Cyclostomata,
which includes the extant hagfish, and this group may have split early on from other agnathans.
The earliest jawed vertebrates probably developed during the late Ordovician period. They are first
represented in the fossil record from the Silurian by two groups of fish: the armoured fish known
as placoderms, which evolved from the ostracoderms; and the Acanthodii (or spiny sharks). The jawed
fish that are still extant in modern days also appeared during the late Silurian: the Chondrichthyes (or
cartilaginous fish) and the Osteichthyes (or bony fish). The bony fish evolved into two separate groups:
the Actinopterygii (or ray-finned fish) and Sarcopterygii (which includes the lobe-finned fish).
During the Devonian period a great increase in fish variety occurred, especially among the ostracoderms
and placoderms, and also among the lobe-finned fish and early sharks. This has led to the Devonian being
known as the age of fishes. It was from the lobe-finned fish that the tetrapods evolved, the four-limbed
vertebrates, represented today by amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Transitional tetrapods first
appeared during the early Devonian, and by the late Devonian the first tetrapods appeared. The diversity
of jawed vertebrates may indicate the evolutionary advantage of a jawed mouth; but it is unclear if the
advantage of a hinged jaw is greater biting force, improved respiration, or a combination of factors. Fish
do not represent a monophyletic group, but a paraphyletic one, as they exclude the tetrapods.[1]
Fish, like many other organisms, have been greatly affected by extinction events throughout natural
history. The earliest ones, the Ordovician–Silurian extinction events, led to the loss of many species.
The late Devonian extinction led to the extinction of the ostracoderms and placoderms by the end of the
Devonian, as well as other fish. The spiny sharks became extinct at the Permian–Triassic extinction event;
the conodonts became extinct at the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. The Cretaceous–Paleogene
extinction event, and the present day Holocene extinction, have also affected fish variety and fish stocks.

Evolution of Fish

Ostracoderms: The first fishes, and indeed the first vertebrates, were the ostracoderms, jawless fishes
found mainly in fresh water. They were covered with a bony armor or scales and were often less than 30
cm (1 ft) long. The ostracoderms are placed in the class Agnatha along with the living jawless fishes, the
lampreys and hagfishes, which are believed to be descended from the ostracoderms.

Cambrian to Devonian

Acanthodians:

The first fishes with jaws, the acanthodians, or spiny sharks, were generally small shark-like fishes
varying from toothless filter-feeders to toothed predators. It is commonly believed that the acanthodians
and the modern bony fishes are related and that either the acanthodians gave rise to the modern bony
fishes or that both groups share a common ancestor.

Silurian to Permian
Placoderms:.

Placoderms were typically small, flattened bottom-dwellers. The upper jaw was firmly fused to the skull,
but there was a hinge joint between the skull and the bony plating of the trunk region

. Devonian Chondrichthyes: The cartilaginous-skeleton sharks and rays, class Chondrichthyes, are
generally believed to be descended from the bony-skeleton placoderms. The cartilaginous skeletons are
considered to be a later development.

Devonian to Recent

Osteichthyes

: The early forms of the modern bony fishes, class Osteichthyes were freshwater fishes until the Triassic.
The Osteichthyes may have arisen from the acanthodians. A subclass of the Osteichthyes, the ray-finned
fishes (subclass Actinopterygii), became and have remained the dominant group of fishes throughout the
world.

Devonian to Recent

Sarcopterygians

: The ancestors of the land vertebrates are found among another group of bony fishes called the
Choanichthyes or Sarcopterygii. Choanate fishes are characterized by internal nostrils, fleshy fins called
lobe fins, and cosmoid scales. The choanate fishes possibly arose from the acanthodians. The choanate
fishes include a group known as the Crossopterygii, which has one living representative, the coelacanth
Latimeria. During the Devonian Period some crossopterygian fishes of the order (or suborder) Rhipidistia
crawled out of the water to become the first amphibians.

Fish may have evolved from an animal similar to a coral-like sea squirt (a tunicate), whose larvae
resemble early fish in important ways. ... Vertebrates, among them the first fishes, originated about 530
million years ago during the Cambrian explosion, which saw the rise in organism diversity.

The first jawed vertebrates appeared in the late Ordovician and became common in the Devonian, often
known as the "Age of Fishes".[11] The two groups of bony fishes, the actinopterygii and sarcopterygii,
evolved and became common.[12] The Devonian also saw the demise of virtually all jawless fishes, save
for lampreys and hagfish, as well as the Placodermi, a group of armoured fish that dominated much of the
late Silurian. The Devonian also saw the rise of the first labyrinthodonts, which was a transitional
between fishes and amphibians.

Many Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian agnathians were armoured with heavy, bony, and often
elaborately sculpted, plates derived from mineralized scales. The first armoured agnathans—
the Ostracoderms, precursors to the bony fish and hence to the tetrapods (including humans)—are known
from the middle Ordovician, and by the Late Silurian the agnathans had reached the high point of their
evolution. Most of the ostracoderms, such as thelodonts, osteostracans, and galeaspids, were more closely
related to the gnathostomes than to the surviving agnathans, known as cyclostomes. Cyclostomes
apparently split from other agnathans before the evolution of dentine and bone, which are present in many
fossil agnathans, including conodonts. Agnathans declined in the Devonian and never recovered.
The agnathans as a whole are paraphyletic, because most extinct agnathans belong to the stem group of
gnathostomes. Recent molecular data, both from rRNA and from mtDNA strongly supports the theory
that living agnathans, known as cyclostomes ,are monophyletic. In phylogenetic taxonomy, the
relationships between animals are not typically divided into ranks, but illustrated as a nested "family tree"
known as a cladogram. Phylogenetic groups are given definitions based on their relationship to one
another, rather than purely on physical traits such as the presence of a backbone. This nesting pattern is
often combined with traditional taxonomy, in a practice known as evolutionary taxonomy.

Adaptive radiation
An adaptive radiation occurs when a single or small group of ancestral species rapidly diversifies into a
large number of descendant species. Among factors that can trigger an adaptive radiation, ecological
opportunity is probably foremost. An ecological opportunity occurs when a small number of individuals
of a species are suddenly presented with an abundance of exploitable resources.

In evolutionary environmental science, adaptive radiation is regarded as a procedure where living

organisms diversify quickly from their ancestral species to take on several new forms.
This happens specifically when environment changes are recorded. This, in turn, results in the availability
of new resources. The entire process of adaptive radiation throws a series of new challenges and opens up
possibilities of a few new ecological niches too.
This process of radiation evolution is a kind of speciation that results in an increase in the number of
species. The main reasons for evolution are due to the changes in the genetic characteristics as exhibited
in a population.
The occurrence of the phenomena of adaptive radiation is the result of natural selection, artificial
selection, sexual selection, mutation pressure, genetic drift, or migration. It indicates evolutionary
variations that are quite adaptive to a specific environment.

Adaptive radiation evolution is regarded as a relatively quick development of several species from a
single common ancestor. This concept has seen to take place when any living organism arrives at a new
location and different types of behaviors start to impact its chances of survival.

The African cichlid fish radiations are the most diverse extant animal radiations and provide a unique
system to test predictions of speciation and adaptive radiation theory.

Swimming in Chondrichthyes

The cartilaginous fish's body is heavier than water. If the shark were to quit swimming, it would sink. The
shark's pectoral fins probably evolved from folds of skin along its body. Note how these pectoral fins are
placed low along the sides of the body and are at right angles to its surface.

Fishes that use their pectoral fins as hydrofoils hold their fins rigidly. Those fishes whose pectoral fins are
flexible use them to make slight adjustments in body position .

Body Form
An evaluation of a fish's body form will allow the viewer to gain an insight into its way of life. The body
form is determined by observing the fish's frontal cross section and comparing it with the fish’s side
profile.

The upper lobe of the caudal is much larger than the lower lobe (called a heterocercal tail). Movement of
this tail shape would tend to drive the shark's head . The shark's head shape is flat and angled down from
the first dorsal fin to the tip of the snout. How would this head shape affect the shark's locomotion
through the waterThe evolution of the Chondrichthyes is directed by their high body density compared to
the density of water. Most cartilaginous fishes have given up fighting the problem of staying up in the
water column and have settled down to the sea floor. Thus skates, rays and guitarfishes represent the
evolutionary solution to this sinking problem.