page_title: Teleost
section_title: Diversity
hierarchical_section_title: Teleost / Evolution and phylogeny / Diversity
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Mâchoire d'un pirhana de la sous-famille des Serrasalminés. Le spécimen proviendrait du Brésil.English: Pirhana jaws (Serrasalminae family). This specimen is supposed to come from Brazil.Deutsch: Piranhakiefer (Serrasalmidae familie). Der Spezimen würde aus Brasilien kommen.Español: Maxilar de pirhana (familia de los Serrasalmidae). El espécimen vendría del Brazil.
context_page_description: Teleostei, members of which are known as teleosts, is by far the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Teleosts are arranged into about 40 orders and 448 families. Over 26,000 species have been described. Teleosts range from giant oarfish measuring 7.6 m or more, and ocean sunfish weighing over 2 t, to the minute male anglerfish Photocorynus spiniceps, just 6.2 mm long. Including not only torpedo-shaped fish built for speed, teleosts can be flattened vertically or horizontally, be elongated cylinders or take specialised shapes as in anglerfish and seahorses. Teleosts dominate the seas from pole to pole and inhabit the ocean depths, estuaries, rivers, lakes and even swamps.
  The difference between teleosts and other bony fish lies mainly in their jaw bones; teleosts have a movable premaxilla and corresponding modifications in the jaw musculature which make it possible for them to protrude their jaws outwards from the mouth. This is of great advantage, enabling them to grab prey and draw it into the mouth.
context_section_description: There are over 26,000 species of teleosts, in about 40 orders and 448 families, making up 96% of all extant species of fish. Approximately 12,000 of the total 26,000 species are found in freshwater habitats. Teleosts are found in almost every aquatic environment and have developed specializations to feed in a variety of ways as carnivores, herbivores, filter feeders and parasites. The longest teleost is the giant oarfish, reported at  7.6 m (25 ft) and more, but this is dwarfed by the extinct Leedsichthys, one individual of which has been estimated to have a length of 27.6 m (91 ft). The heaviest teleost is believed to be the ocean sunfish, with a specimen landed in 2003 having an estimated weight of 2.3 t (2.3 long tons; 2.5 short tons), while the smallest fully mature adult is the male anglerfish Photocorynus spiniceps which can measure just 6.2 mm (0.24 in), though the female at 50 mm (2 in) is much larger. The stout infantfish is the smallest and lightest adult fish and is in fact the smallest vertebrate in the world; the females measures 8.4 mm (0.33 in) and the male just 7 mm (0.28 in).
  Open water fish are usually streamlined like torpedoes to minimize turbulence as they move through the water. Reef fish live in a complex, relatively confined underwater landscape and for them, manoeuvrability is more important than speed, and many of them have developed bodies which optimize their ability to dart and change direction. Many have laterally compressed bodies (flattened from side to side) allowing them to fit into fissures and swim through narrow gaps; some use their pectoral fins for locomotion and others undulate their dorsal and anal fins. Some fish have grown dermal (skin) appendages for camouflage; the prickly leather-jacket is almost invisible among the seaweed it resembles and the tasselled scorpionfish invisibly lurks on the seabed ready to ambush prey. Some like the foureye butterflyfish have eyespots to startle or deceive, while others such as lionfish have aposematic coloration to warn that they are toxic or have venomous spines.
  Flatfish are demersal fish (bottom-feeding fish) that show a greater degree of asymmetry than any other vertebrates. The larvae are at first bilaterally symmetrical but they undergo metamorphosis during the course of their development, with one eye migrating to the other side of the head, and they simultaneously start swimming on their side. This has the advantage that, when they lie on the seabed, both eyes are on top, giving them a broad field of view. The upper side is usually speckled and mottled for camouflage, while the underside is pale.
  Some teleosts are parasites. Remoras have their front dorsal fins modified into large suckers with which they cling onto a host animal such as a whale, sea turtle, shark or ray, but this is probably a commensal rather than parasitic arrangement because both remora and host benefit from the removal of ectoparasites and loose flakes of skin. More harmful are the catfish that enter the gill chambers of fish and feed on their blood and tissues. The snubnosed eel, though usually a scavenger, sometimes bores into the flesh of a fish, and has been found inside the heart of a shortfin mako shark.
  Some species, such as electric eels, can produce powerful electric currents, strong enough to stun prey. Other fish, such as knifefish, generate weak varying electric fields to detect their prey; they swim with straight backs to avoid distorting their electric fields. These currents are produced by modified muscle or nerve cells.
caption: Predatory teleost: the flesh-cutting teeth of a piranha (Serrasalmidae)
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