Zoarcoidei is a

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

es belonging to the order

Scorpaeniformes The Scorpaeniformes are a diverse order of ray-finned fish, including the lionfishes and sculpins, but have also been called the Scleroparei. It is one of the five largest orders of bony fishes by number of species, with over 1,320. They are k ...

. The suborder includes the

wolffish Anarhichadidae, the wolffishes, sea wolves or wolf eels, is a family of marine ray finned fishes belonging to the order Scorpaeniformes. These are predatory, eel shaped fishes which are native to the cold waters of the Arctic, North Pacific and ...

es, gunnels and

eelpout The eelpouts are the ray-finned fish family Zoarcidae. As the common name suggests, they are somewhat eel-like in appearance. All of the roughly 300 species are marine and mostly bottom-dwelling, some at great depths. Eelpouts are predominantly ...

s. The suborder includes about 400 species. These fishes predominantly found in the boreal seas of the northern hemisphere but they have colonised the southern hemisphere.

Taxonomy

Zoarcoidei was first proposed as a taxonomic grouping by the American zoologist Theodore Gill in 1893 as the superfamily Zoarceoidea. The 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' by the American Ichthyology, ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classificat ...

'' classifies the Zoarcoidei as a suborder within the order Scorpaeniformes. Other authorities classify this taxon as the

infraorder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Zoarcales wihin the suborder Cottoidei of the

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means ...

because removing the Scorpaeniformes from the Perciformes renders that taxon non

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

. The monophyly of this grouping has still not been fully ascertained but it is generally accepted that the most

basal Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''. Science * Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure * Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

is Bathymasteridae.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:1000px height:auto barincrement:15px PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px Period = from:-65.5 till:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:-65.5 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-65.5 TimeAxis = orientation:hor AlignBars = justify Colors = #legends id:CAR value:claret id:ANK value:rgb(0.4,0.3,0.196) id:HER value:teal id:HAD value:green id:OMN value:blue id:black value:black id:white value:white id:cenozoic value:rgb(0.54,0.54,0.258) id:paleogene value:rgb(0.99,0.6,0.32) id:paleocene value:rgb(0.99,0.65,0.37) id:eocene value:rgb(0.99,0.71,0.42) id:oligocene value:rgb(0.99,0.75,0.48) id:neogene value:rgb(0.999999,0.9,0.1) id:miocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.999999,0) id:pliocene value:rgb(0.97,0.98,0.68) id:quaternary value:rgb(0.98,0.98,0.5) id:pleistocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.95,0.68) id:holocene value:rgb(0.999,0.95,0.88) BarData= bar:eratop bar:space bar:periodtop bar:space bar:NAM1 bar:NAM2 bar:NAM3 bar:NAM4 bar:NAM5 bar:NAM6 bar:space bar:period bar:space bar:era PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 shift:(7,-4) bar:periodtop from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''pal ...

from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but ...

from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist. from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:eratop from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of ...

from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q. PlotData= align:left fontsize:M mark:(line,white) width:5 anchor:till align:left color:miocene bar:NAM1 from: -11.608 till: 0 text:

Araeosteus ''Araeosteus rothi'' is an extinct species of bony fish closely related to the modern-day prowfish, ''Zaprora silenus''. ''A. rothi'' is found in Late Miocene marine strata of Southern California, primarily the Diatom Beds of Lompoc and the S ...

color:pliocene bar:NAM2 from: -5.332 till: 0 text:

Anarhichas ''Anarhichas'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Anarhichadidae, the wolffishes or sea wolves. These fishes are found in the northern North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. Taxonomy ''Anarhichas'' was first propo ...

color:pliocene bar:NAM3 from: -5.332 till: 0 text: Lycodopsis color:pliocene bar:NAM4 from: -5.332 till: 0 text: Lyconectes color:pleistocene bar:NAM5 from: -2.588 till: 0 text: Anarrhichthys color:pleistocene bar:NAM6 from: -2.588 till: 0 text: Zoarces PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 bar:period from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:

from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:

from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:

from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:

from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist. from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:era from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:

from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.

Families

Zoarcoidei has the following families classified under it: * Anarhichadidae Bonaparte, 1835 (

es) *

Bathymasteridae Ronquils (sometimes spelt ronchils) is a small family marine ray-finned fish, the Bathymasteridae. These fishes are found only in Arctic and North Pacific waters. This family contains just seven species in three genera. The larger species are im ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Ri ...

Gilbert Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South A ...

, 1883 (

ronquil Ronquils (sometimes spelt ronchils) is a small family marine ray-finned fish, the Bathymasteridae. These fishes are found only in Arctic and North Pacific waters. This family contains just seven species in three genera. The larger species are im ...

s) * Cryptacanthodidae

Gill A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they ar ...

, 1861 * Pholidae Gill, 1893 (gunnels) *

Ptilichthyidae The quillfish, (''Ptilichthys goodei''), is a species of marine ray-finned fish, it is the only species in the genus ''Ptilichthys'' and family Ptilichthyidae. This fish occurs in the northern North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy The quillfish was fir ...

Jordan & Gilbert, 1883 ( Quillfish) * Scytalinidae Jordan & Starks, 1895 * Stichaeidae Gill, 1864 ( pricklebacks) *

Eulophiidae Eulophiidae, the spinous eelpouts, is a small family of marine ray-finned fishes classified within the suborder Zoarcoidei of the order Scorpaeniformes. They are found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy Eulophiidae was first proposed a ...

H. M. Smith, 1902 (Spinous eelpouts) * Zaproridae Jordan, 1896 (

prowfish The prowfish (''Zaprora silenus'') is a species of scorpaeniform marine fish found in the northern Pacific Ocean. It is the only extant member of the family, Zaproridae. Another species, ''Araeosteus rothi'', is known from Late Miocene marine s ...

) *

Zoarcidae The eelpouts are the ray-finned fish family Zoarcidae. As the common name suggests, they are somewhat eel-like in appearance. All of the roughly 300 species are marine and mostly bottom-dwelling, some at great depths. Eelpouts are predominantly ...

Swainson, 1839 (

Etymology

Zoarcoidei is based on the genus name '' Zoarces'' which was coined by

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in na ...

in 1829 and which means "live bearing", as in the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

'' Zoarces viviparus'', the viviparous blenny.

Characteristics

The Zoarcoidei families all share a single feature, the possession of a single nostril, and there is no other features or group of features which mark out the Zoarcoids as a taxonomic grouping.

Distribution

The Zoarcoidei is thought to have originated in the northern hemisphere, particularly the northwestern Pacific Ocean and one of the families, the Zoarcidae, has colonised the southern hemisphere on a number of occasions.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q300930 Scorpaeniformes Ray-finned fish suborders Taxa named by Theodore Gill