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Agnatha (/ ˈ æ ɡ n ə θ ə, æ ɡ ˈ n eɪ θ ə /; [3] from Ancient Greek ἀ-(a-) 'without' and γνάθος (gnáthos) 'jaws') is a paraphyletic infraphylum [4] of non-gnathostome vertebrates, or jawless fish, in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, consisting of both living (cyclostomes) and extinct (conodonts, anaspids, and ostracoderms, among others).
Gnathostomata is traditionally a infraphylum, broken into three top-level groupings: Chondrichthyes, or the cartilaginous fish; Placodermi, an extinct grade of armored fish; and Teleostomi, which includes the familiar classes of bony fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Some classification systems have used the term Amphirhina.
Cope (1889) [11] coined the name Agnatha ("jawless") for a group that included the cyclostomes and a number of fossil groups in which jaws could not be observed. Vertebrates were subsequently divided into two major sister-groups: the Agnatha and the Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates).
Jawless fish belong to the superclass Agnatha in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata. Agnatha means 'un-jawed, without jaws' (from Ancient Greek). [11] It excludes all vertebrates with jaws, known as gnathostomes. Although a minor element of modern marine fauna, jawless fish were prominent among the early fish in the early Paleozoic.
3.1 Infraphylum Agnatha: Jawless vertebrates. 3.1.1 Superclass Cyclostomata: Extant jawless vertebrates. ... Infraphylum Gnathostomata: Jawed vertebrates
Agnatha. The first vertebrates ("fish") appear: the Agnathans. They were jawless, had seven pairs of pharyngeal arches like their descendants today, and their endoskeletons were cartilaginous (then only consisting of the chondro cranium/braincase and vertebrae). The jawless Cyclostomata diverge at this stage.
Fishes are a paraphyletic group and for this reason, the class Pisces seen in older reference works is no longer used in formal taxonomy.Traditional classification divides fish into three extant classes (Agnatha, Chondrichthyes, and Osteichthyes), and with extinct forms sometimes classified within those groups, sometimes as their own classes: [1]
Together, these two taxa of jawless vertebrates are the sister-group of gnathostomes. Several synapomorphies support this hypothesis, such as the presence of: sclerotic ossicles, paired pectoral fins, a dermal skeleton with three layers (a basal layer of isopedin, a middle layer of spongy bone, and a superficial layer of dentin), and ...