Prehistoric fish are early fish that are known only from

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

records. They are the earliest known

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with ...

s, and include the first and extinct fish that lived through the

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago ...

to the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million year ...

. The study of prehistoric fish is called ''paleoichthyology''. A few living forms, such as the

coelacanth The coelacanths ( ) are fish belonging to the order Actinistia that includes two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'': the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae''), primarily found near the Comoro Islands off the east coast ...

are also referred to as prehistoric fish, or even

living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living foss ...

s, due to their current rarity and similarity to extinct forms. Fish which have become recently

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

are not usually referred to as prehistoric fish. They were very different from what we have today. They likely were larger and had tougher scales.

Lists

Lists of various prehistoric fishes include: * List of prehistoric jawless fish * List of placoderms *

List of acanthodians This list of acanthodian genera is an attempt to create a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the subclass Acanthodii, excluding purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also gen ...

List of prehistoric cartilaginous fish This list of prehistoric cartilaginous fish genera is an attempt to create a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the class chondrichthyes ''and'' are known from the fossil record. This list excludes purely vernacul ...

List of prehistoric bony fish A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...

List of sarcopterygians This list of lobe-finned fish is a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the class Sarcopterygii, excluding purely vernacular terms and Tetrapods. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera that a ...

References

External links

Fossil Fish
{{DEFAULTSORT:fish, prehistoric Paleontology lists

Lists

See also

References

Other reading

External links