Neopterygii

Neopterygii are a group of fish. Neopterygii means "new fins". Only a few changes occurred during their evolution from the earlier actinopterygians. They appeared sometime in the Late Permian, before the time of the dinosaurs. The Neopterygii are a very successful group of fish, because they can move more rapidly than their ancestors. Their scales and skeletons began to lighten during their evolution, and their jaws became more powerful and efficient. While electroreception and the ampullae of Lorenzini are present in all other groups of fish, with the exception of hagfish (although hagfish are not Actinopterygii, they are Agnathans}, Neopterygii have lost this sense, even if it has later been re-evolved within Gymnotiformes and catfishes, which possess nonhomologous teleost ampullae.

Contents

• Lecture 48 the modern fish neopterygii and the arrival of the teleostei
• Oldest fossil neopterygii with secondary sex characters discovered in southwest china
• Classification
• References