Plagiuri is an early (now disused) biological subclassification of fish (for example in
Peter Artedi's ''Ichthyologia'', and in early editions of
Linnaeus's ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...
''). The term was invented by Artedi,
[Artedi, P. (1738)]
''Ichthyologia: Phylosophia Ichthyologica'': 53(152)
/ref>[Romero, A. & Keith, E.O. (2012)]
''New approaches to the study of marine mammals'': 24
/ref> and is derived from the Greek (plagios; ''transverse'') and (oura; ''tail'').[ Rees, A. (1819)]
''The Cyclopaedia; or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature'', vol. 27: PLA
/ref> The ''Pisces Plagiuri'' included those animals then classed as fish whose tails' flat surfaces faced anatomically up and down and not sideways. Its members have now been shown to be mammals (including the whales
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
and manatees).
References
{{Reflist
Obsolete vertebrate taxa