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“The first vertebrates appeared in the Cambrian explosion some 518 million years ago. Jawed vertebrates evolved in the Ordovician, followed by bony fishes in the Devonian. The first amphibians appeared on land in the Carboniferous. During the Triassic, mammals and dinosaurs appeared, the latter giving rise to birds in the Jurassic. Extant species are roughly equally divided between fishes of all kinds, and Tetrapods. Populations of many species have been in steep decline since 1970 because of land-use change, overexploitation of natural resources, climate change, pollution and the impact of invasive species.” I think this section from the lead might be a bit outdated or inaccurate, first the Gnathostomata article says the first jawed vertabrates are from the Silurian with possible Ordovician records but this just says they evolved in the Ordovician and the Osteichthyes article says that bony fish originated in the Silurian. Houcaris (talk) 23:04, 16 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
level-3 vital article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
