Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Xiphopterus is an
extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived from the early to
middle Eocene. Osteichthyes, also called bony fish, are a taxonomic
group of fish that have bony, as opposed to cartiligeous, skeletons. The
vast majority of fish are osteichthyes, which is an extremely diverse
and abundant group consisting of over 29,000 species. It is the largest
class of vertebrates in existence today. Osteichthyes is divided into
the ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) and lobe-finned fish
(Sarcopterygii). In most classification systems the Osteichthyes are
paraphyletic with land vertebrates.
