Bichir | 水產百科網

Anatomy[edit]...Polypteridsareelongatedfishwithauniqueseriesofdorsalfinletswhichvaryinnumberfromsevento18,insteadofasingledorsalfin.Eachofthe ...

Family of archaic-looking ray-finned fishes

Bichirs and the reedfish comprise Polypteridae , a family of archaic ray-finned fishes and the only family in the order Polypteriformes .[2]

All the species occur in freshwater habitats in tropical Africa and the Nile River system, mainly swampy, shallow floodplains and estuaries.

Cladistia, polypterids and their fossil relatives, are considered the sister group to all other extant ray-finned fishes (Actinopteri).[3][4] They likely diverged from Actinopteri around 400 million years ago, during the Devonian, but recognisable polypterid remains do not appear until around 100 million years ago, during the early Late Cretaceous in South America and Africa.[5]

Polypterids are elongated fish with a unique series of dorsal finlets whic...