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bony fish definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any fish of the class Osteichthyes

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1691 any of a major taxon (class Osteichthyes or superclass Teleostomi) comprising fishes (as sturgeons, eels, mackerels, and sunfish) with a bony rather than a cartilaginous skeleton — called also teleost — compare cartilaginous fish, jawless fish

Britannica Concise

Any member of the vertebrate class Osteichthyes, incl. the great majority of living fishes and all the world's sport and commercial fishes. Also called Pisces, the class excludes jawless fishes (hagfishes and lampreys) and cartilaginous fishes (sharks, skates, and rays). There are more than 20,000 species worldwide, all with a skeleton at least partly composed of true bone. Other features include, in most species, a swim bladder (an air-filled sac to give buoyancy), gill covers over the gill chamber, bony platelike scales, a skull with sutures, and external fertilization of eggs. Bony fishes occur in all freshwater and ocean environments.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bony Bon"y, a. 1. Consisting of bone, or of bones; full of bones; pertaining to bones. 2. Having large or prominent bones. Bony fish (Zo["o]l.), the menhaden. Bony pike (Zo["o]l.), the gar pike (Lepidosteus).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Menhaden Men*ha"den, n. (Zo["o]l.) An American marine fish of the Herring familt (Brevoortia tyrannus), chiefly valuable for its oil and as a component of fertilizers; -- called also mossbunker, bony fish, chebog, pogy, hardhead, whitefish, etc.