Bichirs have a row of small fins along their backs that look like flagpoles and flags, hence their other name, the flagfish. Their pectoral (chest), fins also grow from tiny “fans.”
The “flagpole and flag”arrangement is unique to bichirs and their closest relatives,the ropefish. Where other fish have one,or sometimes two,“normal” fins along the back,in bichirs each spine of the fin is separated from the others. Each carries a number of horizontal rays,creating a series of distinctive flagpoles and flags,which can number up to eighteen., The “fans”are
