History of Ichthyology

Ichthyology is simply the science of studying fishes. Ichthyology- word ichthy, deriving from the Greek word ixthu, combining form of ixthus, meaning "fish". This includes bony fish, cartilaginous fish and jawless fish. Historically, ichthyologists were naturalists who described fishes they collected. Fish are the most diverse group of vertebrates, with more than one-half of the total vertebrate species. Approximately 33000 living species of fishes were described so far. Now, Ichthyology is considered to be the study of fish populations, their habitat requirements, and fisheries resources.Ichthyology originated near the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period, about forty thousand years ago, and continues to the present day. Fishes would be just as diverse and successful without ichthyologists studying them, but what we know about their diversity is the product of the efforts of workers worldwide over several centurie