Ancient fish

The coelacanth is a rare marine fish that is a living representative of an ancient lineage of formerly common fishes.

The inner ear of a 400 million-year-old 'platypus fish' has yielded new insights into early vertebrate evolution, suggesting this ancient creature may be more closely related to modern-day sharks and bony fish than previously thought. Artistic rendering of Brindablleaspis (foreground) with a range of other Devonian fossil fishes. The white shark and human diver in the upper right corner represent modern jawed vertebrates [Credit: YANG Hongyu & ZHENG Qiuyang] A team of scientists from the…

Today we’re looking at one of the oldest fish to swim our waters—the sturgeon. These 200 million-year-old fish are lovingly referred to as primitive fish. However, their value to our understanding of ancient times is anything but primitive. Experts study sturgeons to get a clearer picture of prehistoric animals.

Bring 'em back alive! That's exactly what some zoologists are doing when they re-discover living populations of species previously thought to be extinct.

Dunkleosteus (meaning "Dunkle's bone") was a large placoderm fish that lived in the late Devonian period, about 382–358 million years ago.[1] It has been estimated to have grew to 4.1 metres (12.3 feet), and was the top predator of its time and the Paleozoic era as a whole. Dunkleosteus belongs to the Placodermi, a large, paraphyletic clade of armor-plated fishes likely ancestral to all living gnathostomes. More precisely, it was an arthodire, part of a clade which possessed skulls that had…

Starting with the Devonian series. Here is a sampling of early Devonian fish from the MacKenzie mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada. Promesacanthus, Brochoadmones, Canadapteraspis, Lepidaspis, Nahanniaspis, Sphenonectris, Furcacauda, Superciliaspis by Nobumichi Tamura

It is one of several new finds that could rewrite how scientists understand fish evolution.

1854 Ichthyology (Fish) Engraving, Oliver Goldsmith

Future Nostalgia-PhotoBlog: Art Museum Fish Head, Part of a fountain along the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum.