Ray-Finned Fishes

Ray-Finned Fishes

KNOWN SPECIES

34,000

1.44% of our world's living things are ray-finned fish

CHARACTERISTICS

animals with a backbone (vertebrates)
they possess gills throughout their life and have limbs that are developed in the shape of fins

SIZE RANGE

0.30 inch to 15 feet (7.5 millimeters to 4.5 meters)

WHERE THEY LIVE

in fresh water and oceans

Here are just SOME of the world’s ray-finned fishes:

electric eel
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Electrophorus electricus

North Atlantic swordfish
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Xiphias gladius

honeycomb cowfish
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Acanthostracion polygonius

pacu
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Piaractus mesopotamicus

Pacific seahorse
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Hippocampus ingens

red lionfish
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Pterois volitans

French angelfish
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Pomacanthus paru

Guess what?

About half of the animal species with backbones are fishes.

Credits

Check out these fascinating fish from Africa's lower Congo River.

Find out what lives in the deep sea, coral reef, and continental shelf.

What adaptations help these creatures survive?