Cyclostomi
Sign in to saveCyclostomi, often referred to as Cyclostomata (, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos), meaning "circle", and στόμα (stóma), meaning "mouth", and thus, "circular mouth")
AI overview
Cyclostomi are a group of animals named for their distinctive circular mouths, a feature reflected in their name derived from Ancient Greek words meaning "circle" and "mouth." While the context provided doesn't detail their broader significance, their unusual mouth structure makes them a notable subject of biological study and classification.
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Article
4 sectionsContents
- Possible external relationships
- Internal differences and similarities
- Phylogeny
- References
Cyclostomi, often referred to as Cyclostomata (, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos), meaning "circle", and στόμα (stóma), meaning "mouth", and thus, "circular mouth") is a superclass of vertebrates that comprises the living jawless fish classes: the lampreys and hagfishes. Both groups have jawless mouths with horny epidermal structures that function as teeth called ceratodontes, and branchial arches that are internally positioned instead of external as in the related jawed fishes.
== Possible external relationships == This taxon is often included in the paraphyletic infraphylum Agnatha, which also includes several groups of extinct armored fishes called ostracoderms. Most fossil agnathans, such as galeaspids, thelodonts, and osteostracans, are more closely related to vertebrates with jaws (called gnathostomes) than to cyclostomes.