The sharks and other cartilaginous fishes (the class Chondrichthyes) have modified the structure of the first two arches; the cartilages of the anterior arch form the mandible and upper jaw (palatoquadrate), and modifications also have taken place in the second, hyoid arch. The posterior five gill arches of more primitive sharks, however, are a good model for the condition in the ancestral jawless fishes. Each arch has a visceral skeleton comprising five cartilages named, from dorsal to ventral, the pharyngobranchial, epibranchial, ceratobranchial, hypobranchial, and basibranchial. The cartilages are arranged at angles to each other. Each cartilaginous arch is provided with a set of branchial muscles that receives separate, visceral innervation. Superficially, a thin sheet comprising dorsal and ventral constrictor muscles runs in the flap of skin that covers each gill slit and forms the gill septum. Most fibres attach, dorsally and ventrally, to connective tissues (fascia) that sheath the body. Some of the deeper fibres attach to the gill bar and may run between adjacent bars. These thin, broad muscles squeeze the pharynx closed as part of the pumping action necessary for gill breathing. Dorsal and deep to this layer, a levator muscle runs from the sheathing fascia to the pharyngobranchial, and it can elevate the gill arch. In some sharks, however, the most posterior sets of levator muscles, whose fibres run diagonally down and back, may join adjacent levators, become enlarged, and attach to the pectoral girdle. This mass is known as the trapezius and evolves into the tetrapod muscle of the same name. Adductor muscles are positioned so as to close the angle between the epibranchial and ceratobranchial, and an interarcual muscle performs the same function for the angle between the pharyngobranchial and epibranchial cartilages.

In the jawed fishes, including the sharks, the axial musculature of the trunk and tail (a single block in cyclostomes) differentiates into dorsal and ventral components, which are separated by connective tissue. The dorsal block of muscle is known as the epaxial musculature, and the ventral block, the hypaxial. The epaxial block runs from the back of the skull to the end of the tail, while the hypaxial block is not present any farther forward than the pectoral (shoulder) girdle (because of the presence of the branchial [gill] apparatus). The hypaxial musculature in the tail forms a solid block of muscle, while in the trunk it encloses the body cavity. Ribs develop in the horizontal septum separating the two blocks of muscle and usually lie in the myocommata, the fascial tissue separating each myomere. In fishes, the ribs primarily serve to improve the leverage of the myomeres in producing the undulatory movements of swimming. The ribs are short in sharks but may develop to considerable length in bony fishes. Unlike the cyclostomes, where the myomeres form a series of essentially vertical strips of muscle, the myomeres of all jawed fishes are folded in a complex fashion. This development is related to the development of a more powerful swimming ability in the jawed fishes. The myomeres are folded in a zigzag pattern, projecting strongly forward halfway down the side of the fish, with a smaller, backward projection both dorsal and ventral to this point; the effect is of a W on its side. These projections become sharper and more cone-shaped deep to the surface of the fish and thus come both to be overlapped by the folds of several anterior myomeres and to overlap those of several more posterior myomeres. The folding and overlapping of myomeres has the effect that contraction of a single myomere produces curvature over a considerable part of the body of the fish. The fishes that swim faster thus tend to have a greater degree of folding and overlapping. In the tunny, for example, one myomere may have an overlap with 20 others. The undulations of the body and caudal (tail) fin produced by these axial muscles can produce much greater thrust than is produced by the beating of the appendicular fins. The latter are mostly used in slow “precision” swimming, as when a fish is investigating food, while undulations of the body are used for faster, powerful swimming. The axial musculature of fishes contributes up to half the weight of the fish, while the appendicular muscle contributes less than a fifth of the fish’s mass.

In all higher vertebrates, the most anterior element in the axial musculature is the set of six eye muscles derived from the three pre-otic somites (those anterior to the ear region of the embryo). The rectus muscles move the eyes about the longitudinal axis of the body, that is, superiorly (upward) or inferiorly (downward), or about a vertical axis, in other words, laterally (backward) or medially (forward), according to their position relative to the eyeball. The oblique muscles, superior and inferior, rotate the eyes about a transverse axis.

Jawed fishes have single midline fins and two sets of paired fins. The unpaired dorsal and anal fins of teleosts (advanced bony fishes) have axially derived muscle sheets on either side, which, when contracted, may change their angle and even fold the fins. The paired pectoral fins and the weaker pair of pelvic fins, however, have a mass of musculature both dorsal and ventral to them that is derived from mesenchymal cells. The dorsal muscle mass lifts the fin or pulls it posteriorly; the ventral mass pulls it down or forward. The two major muscle masses are attached at one end to the pectoral or pelvic girdle and on the other to the base of the fin. The amount of downward or upward movement of the fin versus the amount of backward or forward movement can be adjusted, in some fishes, by small slips of muscle derived from the major dorsal and ventral masses, which twist the fin.

The hypobranchial muscles of jawed fishes are straplike muscles running from the pectoral girdle to the structures of the visceral skeleton, the jaws, and the gill bars. Some muscles, such as the coracomandibularis, are specialized as jaw openers, although most of the work of jaw opening is done by gravity.

In bony fishes the gill septum of the hyoid arch is greatly modified to become a single, movable, bony covering for the whole gill chamber—the operculum. The individual gill septa are lost, and there is a great modification of the posterior branchial muscles, with many of the elements found in sharks (e.g., levators and adductors) becoming reduced or absent. The superficial constrictor of the hyoid arch in sharks is remodeled in bony fishes to control the opening and closing of this protective cover.

Electric organs appear to have arisen independently in several fishes. They are modifications of the axial musculature of the tail, as in the electric eel Gymnotus, a teleost, or of the muscles of the pectoral fins, as in the ray Torpedo. In a few cases electric organs lie superficially to the musculature and may be derived from modified glandular tissue, as in the Nile catfish Malapterurus.

Origins of the tetrapod limbs

The invasion of land led to a complete change in emphasis in the propulsive elements of the muscular system. In fish the axial musculature is much more important as a mover of the body than is the appendicular musculature. The evolution of land vertebrates is characterized by an increasing emphasis on the limbs for propulsion and by a corresponding de-emphasis on the axial musculature. The limbs of tetrapods are generally similar in overall pattern. Primitively at least, most major groups have similar characteristic features: the fore and hind feet have five digits; there is one bone in the proximal part of the limb (nearest to the body) and two in the distal part (away from the body); and there are a wrist or ankle joint, an elbow or knee joint, and a shoulder or hip joint. Although most muscles have several roles, the major actions of tetrapod limb muscles are similar: some primarily resist the downward force of the body at hip and shoulder, others press the supporting fore or hind feet down onto the ground at wrist or ankle or pull back on the supporting limbs (at all three joints) to create thrust, and others primarily pull the “swing” limbs forward into a new support position.

The limbs may originally have developed more as supportive struts. Structurally, the tetrapod limb can be derived from the pattern found in the paired fins of Sarcopterygii, a class of lobe-finned fishes. These were once a large radiation but have been largely replaced by the Actinopterygii, the class of ray-finned fishes. Today the lobe-finned fishes are represented by the coelacanth (Latimeria) and the lungfishes (Dipnoi). The lungfishes, denizens of shallow and seasonal waters, habitually use their fins as supports, but propulsion is largely achieved by undulations of the body, as is the case with other fish.