A class of fish with skeletons made entirely of cartilage rather than bone, including sharks, rays, and skates.
From Greek 'chondros' (cartilage) + 'pterygion' (fin). This scientific classification name literally means 'cartilage-finned,' referring to fish with cartilage skeletons.
Sharks belong to Chondropterygii, a group so successful they've barely changed in 450 million years—their cartilage skeletons are so efficient that evolution decided, 'why fix what isn't broken?'
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