• @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      9
      edit-2
      23 days ago

      Nah. You could have a fish that evolved out of having a spine (see: Chuck Schumer) but you can’t evolve out of a clade.

    • Tuukka R
      link
      fedilink
      English
      223 days ago

      Seems so. Wikipedia tells there are seven classes of vertebrates:

      • Agnatha (jawless fishes, paraphyletic)
      • Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes)
      • Osteichthyes (bony fishes, paraphyletic)
      • Amphibia (amphibians)
      • Reptilia (reptiles, paraphyletic)
      • Aves (birds)
      • Mammalia (mammals)

      So yes, fishes is the same thing as vertebrates.

      Probably because if you were a vertebrate living in the sea, you needed some sort of gills and fins and such. And those are what makes people assume something is a “fish”.