Talk:Euteleostomi

Latest comment: 7 years ago by RProgrammer in topic No other extant subgroups?

Distinguishing characters edit

The list of subgroups looks right, but this diagnosis doesn't:

"Euteleostomi is a group of vertebrates whose common characteristic is the presence of a skeleton."

Lots of vertebrates other than euteleostomes have some kind of skeleton, including sharks and fossil ostracoderms, placoderms, and acanthodians. We could narrow it to "presence of a calcified skeleton", but some of the groups above even have that, and even cartilaginous fish such as sharks appear to have an ancestral ability to produce bone. There must be some other characters that unite bony fish and tetrapods. Cephal-odd 15:29, 4 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

No other extant subgroups? edit

Just to be sure, there are no other extant, unsuccessful, subgroups? (If not, I'll make that clearer on the page for new readers) --RProgrammer (talk) 16:39, 4 June 2016 (UTC)Reply