the lack of knowledge ppl have abt animals is astounding to me. which is what the ungulate poll is teaching me. probably just bc i was always an insane animal kid and knew what a saiga was by age 7 but like what do you MEAN you think a dolphin is a fish HELLO???? is that not common knowledge?????????
what is a fish
i mean if we’re being technical about it they’re not WRONG you know like all mammals are fish if you try to define “fish” taxonomically. like im talking abt ppl not knowing dolphins are mammals but thats besides the point. fish is just a body plan, really, generally accepted as fully or semi aquatic animals with gills, digitless limbs, and a spinal cord. there’s two extant infraphyla of what we would consider “fish” which just so happens to also encompass every vertebrate as well. gnathostomata includes the class chondrichthyes (cartiliginous fish such as sharks and rays) and superclass osteichthyes (bony fish, which is the majority of extant fish, and every tetrapod, which means every mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian). so like there’s no way to classify “fish” without 1. leaving out huge chunks of what we would consider fish or 2. including every tetrapod ever as well. so like yeah “fish” is just a body plan pretty much bc there’s absolutely no way to classify them taxonomically
ok but like. what IS a fish
all fish fall under infraphyla agnatha (jawless fish like lampreys) or gnathostomata (jawed fish). there’s a lot more than fish in those groups but all animals considered fish fall into these two infraphyla
