Lists of prehistoric fish

*Haikouichthys*, from about 518 million years ago in China, may be the earliest known fish.^[1]^{[additional citation(s) needed]}

Prehistoric fish are early fish that are known only from fossil records. They are the earliest known vertebrates, and include the first and extinct fish that lived through the Cambrian to the Quaternary. The study of prehistoric fish is called paleoichthyology. A few living forms, such as the coelacanth are also referred to as prehistoric fish, or even living fossils, due to their current rarity and similarity to extinct forms. Fish which have become recently extinct are not usually referred to as prehistoric fish. They were very different from what we have today. They likely were larger and had tougher scales.

Lists of various prehistoric fishes include:

^ Shu, D-G., Conway Morris, S., Han, J.; et al. (January 2003). "Head and backbone of the Early Cambrian vertebrate Haikouichthys". Nature. 421 (6922): 526–529. Bibcode:2003Natur.421..526S. doi:10.1038/nature01264. PMID 12556891. S2CID 4401274.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[1] Shu, D-G., Conway Morris, S., Han, J.; et al. (January 2003). "Head and backbone of the Early Cambrian vertebrate Haikouichthys". Nature. 421 (6922): 526–529. Bibcode:2003Natur.421..526S. doi:10.1038/nature01264. PMID 12556891. S2CID 4401274.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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