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Brachiopterygian Fishes

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The Central Nervous System of Vertebrates

Abstract

The bony fishes, or Osteichthys, constitute by far the largest class of extant vertebrates, encompassing more than 25 000 species. The great majority of these species belong in the large subclass Actino-pterygii, or ray-finned fishes. However, the Oste-ichthyes encompass three other subclasses: the Brachiopterygii, or arm-finned fishes (also designated as Cladistia); the Dipnoi, or lungfishes; and the Crossopterygii, or tassel-finned fishes. Although each of these three subclasses includes only a limited number of species, these are of great zoological and evolutionary interest. In this chapter, we focus on the Brachiopterygii, which contain the single family Polypteridae, with two genera: Polypterus and Erpetoichthys (previously indicated as Calamoichthys). The genus Polypterus, the bichirs, comprises ten species, all with an elongated body and a similar appearance. The other genus consists of a single species, the reedfish Erpetoichthys calabaricus. The body of the reedfish is eel-shaped (Fig. 13.1), but it is otherwise similar to the bichirs morphologically and ecologically.

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Nieuwenhuys, R. (1998). Brachiopterygian Fishes. In: The Central Nervous System of Vertebrates. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18262-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18262-4_13

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