Etymology

The word for fish in English and the other Germanic languages (German Fisch; Gothic fisks) is
inherited from Proto-Germanic, and is related to the Latin piscis and Old Irish īasc, though the
exact root is unknown; some authorities reconstruct an Proto-Indo-European root *peysk-,
attested only in Italic, Celtic, and Germanic.[8][9][10][11]
The English word once had a much broader usage than its current biological meaning. Names
such as starfish, jellyfish, shellfish and cuttlefish attest to almost any fully aquatic animal
(including whales) once being fish. "Correcting" such names (e.g. to sea star) is an attempt to
retroactively apply the current meaning of fish to words that were coined when it had a different
meaning.

Evolution
Main article: Evolution of fish
Fish, as vertebrata, developed as sister of the tunicata. As the tetrapods emerged deep within
the fishes group, as sister of the lungfish, characteristics of fish are typically shared by tetrapods,
including having vertebrae and a cranium.

Dunkleosteus was a gigantic, 10-metre (33 ft) long prehistoric fish of class Placodermi.

Lower jaw of the placoderm Eastmanosteus pustulosus, showing the shearing structures ("teeth") on its
oral surface; from the Devonian of Wisconsin.

Early fish from the fossil record are represented by a group of small, jawless, armored fish known
as ostracoderms. Jawless fish lineages are mostly extinct. An extant clade, the lampreys may
approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. The first jaws are found in Placodermi fossils. They lacked
distinct teeth, having instead the oral surfaces of their jaw plates modified to serve the various
purposes of teeth. The diversity of jawed vertebrates may indicate the evolutionary advantage of
a jawed mouth. It is unclear if the advantage of a hinged jaw is greater biting force, improved
respiration, or a combination of factors.
Fish may have evolved from a creature similar to a coral-like sea squirt, whose larvae resemble
primitive fish in important ways. The first ancestors of fish may have kept the larval form into
adulthood (as some sea squirts do today), although perhaps the reverse is the case.

Phylogeny
Fishes are a paraphyletic group: that is, any clade containing all fish also contains the tetrapods,
which are not fish (though they include fish-shaped forms, such as Whales and Dolphins or
the extinct ichthyosaurs, which acquired a fish-like body shape due to secondary aquatic
adaptation, see evolution of cetaceans).
The following cladogram shows clades - some with, some without extant relatives - that are
traditionally considered as "fishes" (cyan line) and the tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates), which
are mostly terrestrial. Extinct groups are marked with a dagger (†).
Vert   Agnat  
ebra   ha/
ta/   Hyperoartia (lampreys)
Cyclos
tomes  
Myxini (hagfish)
 
 
  †Euconodonta
   
 
†Pteraspidomorphi

 
  †Thelodonti

   
 
†Anaspida

   
 

†Galeaspida

   
 
†Pituriaspida

 
 
†Osteostraci

Gnath  
ostom  
ata "†Placodermi" (armoured fishes, paraphyletic)[13]

   
 

"†Acanthodii" ("spiny sharks", paraphyletic or polyphyletic)[14]

  Chondric  
hthyes "†Acanthodii" ("spiny sharks", paraphyletic or polyphyletic)
 
(cartilagi
nous fis
hes)
   
   
Holocephali (ratfish)

 
 
Euselachii (sharks, rays)
Euteleos  
tomi/ "†Acanthodii" ("spiny sharks", paraphyletic or polyphyletic)
 

    Actinop
 
terygii
  Cladistia (bichirs, reedfish)
(ray-fin
ned fish    
es)     Chondrostei (sturgeons, paddlefish)

 
 
Neopterygii (includes Teleostei, 96% of living fish species)

Sarcopt  
erygii  
†Onychodontiformes

 
  Actinistia (coelacanths)

Rhi    
pidi  
stia  
†Porolepiformes

 
  Dipnoi (lungfishes)

Tetrapo    
domorp
ha/  
†Rhizodontimorpha

   
   
†Tristichopteridae

   
   
†Tiktaalik

Tetrapoda  
four-limbed vertebrates  
†Ichthyostega

 
  crown-group tetrapods