Mugiliformes is a small

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

percomorph Percomorpha () is an extremely large and diverse clade of ray-finned fish. With more than 17,000 known species (including Scombroidei, tuna, Syngnathiformes, seahorses, gobies, Cichlidae, cichlids, flatfish, Labridae, wrasse, Perciformes, perches ...

fish in the clade

Ovalentaria Ovalentaria is a clade of ray-finned fishes within the Percomorpha, referred to as a subseries. It is made up of a group of fish families which are referred to in ''Fishes of the World's'' fifth edition as'' incertae sedis'', as well as the order ...

. This order is recognized by the

Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...

(2025). It contains only two families: *

Mugilidae The mullets or grey mullets are a family (Mugilidae) of ray-finned fish found worldwide in coastal temperate and tropical waters, and some species in fresh water. Mullets have served as an important source of food in Mediterranean Europe since R ...

Jarocki, 1822 - mullets (57 species) *

Ambassidae The Asiatic glassfishes are a family, the Ambassidae, of freshwater and marine ray-finned fishes. Some species are known as perchlets. The family has also been called Chandidae, and some sources continue to use the name, but as Ambassidae was u ...

Klunzinger, 1870 - Asiatic glassfishes (75 species) Until recently, this order was restricted to only the mullets, but phylogenetic studies support the Asiatic glassfishes (previously placed as ''

incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'' within the Ovalentaria) being their closest relatives. The order is thought to be the sister group to the

Blenniiformes Blenniiformes is an order of percomorph fish in the clade Ovalentaria, of which it is the most diverse group. This order contains several well-known fish groups such as blennies and damselfish. The term is derived from the Latin word '' blenn ...

. Other authors instead treat this order as a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

within an expanded Blenniiformes, and also find the Congrogadidae to be allied with the mullet-glassfish clade.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3327483 Ray-finned fish orders Taxa named by Albert Günther