Order Summary for Osteoglossiformes

  Main Ref
:
  Order
:
Osteoglossiformes bony tongues
  Class
:
Teleostei
  Sister Order
:
Elopiformes 150 M years
  Ref.
:
  First Fossil Record
:
late Jurassic
  Occurs in
:
Marine
Fresh
Brackish
  Remark
:
Intestine passes posteriorly to left of esophagus and stomach; parasphenoid and tounge bones usually with well-developed teeth and forming a shearing bite (mesopterygoid and usually the ectopterygoid also toothed); premaxilla small and fixed to the skull; no supramaxilla; caudal fin skeleton, except in Hiodon, with large first ural centrum and no urodermals, one or more epurals fused with uroneurals; caudal fin with 16 or fewer branched rays; nasal capsule rigid, no antorbital-supraorbital system for pumping water over olfactory epithelium; epipleural intermuscular bones absent; one or two pyloric caeca, one caecum in Hiodon and Pantodon and two in other osteoglossiforms.
  Class etymology
:
Greek aktis = ray, thunderbolt, beam + Greek pterygion, diminutive of pteryx = wing, fin. Ref. 45335.
  Order etymology
:
Greek, osteon = bone + Greek, glossa = tongue + Latin, forma = shape (Ref. 45335).
  Families
:

Ref.
[ e.g. 9948]                       
Glossary
                    [ e.g. cephalopods]

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