<Table> External video <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Chordate Evolution and Bony Fish YouTube </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Chordate Evolution and Bony Fish YouTube </Td> </Tr> <P> Bony fishes, class Osteichthyes, are characterised by bony skeleton rather than cartilage . They appeared in the late Silurian, about 419 million years ago . The recent discovery of Entelognathus strongly suggests that bony fishes (and possibly cartilaginous fishes, via acanthodians) evolved from early placoderms . A subclass of the Osteichthyes, the ray - finned fishes (Actinopterygii), have become the dominant group of fishes in the post-Paleozoic and modern world, with some 30,000 living species . </P> <P> The bony (and cartilaginous) fish groups that emerged after the Devonian, were characterised by steady improvements in foraging and locomotion . </P>

When did the first bony fish appear on earth