The Osmeriformes are an order of

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 hor ...

that includes the true or freshwater smelts and allies, such as the

galaxiid The Galaxiidae are a family of mostly small freshwater fish in the Southern Hemisphere. The majority live in Southern Australia or New Zealand, but some are found in South Africa, southern South America, Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia, and the ...

s and

noodlefish Salangidae, the icefishes or noodlefishes, are a family of small osmeriform fish, related to the smelts. They are found in Eastern Asia, ranging from the Russian Far East in the north to Vietnam in the south, with the highest species richness in ...

es; they are also collectively called osmeriforms. They belong to the

teleost Teleostei (; Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Tel ...

superorder 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 ...

Protacanthopterygii Protacanthopterygii is a ray-finned fish taxon ranked as a superorder of the infraclass Teleostei. They inhabit both marine and freshwater habitats. They appear to have evolved in the Cretaceous or perhaps late Jurassic, originating probably rou ...

, which also includes

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

and

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

, among others. The order's name means "smelt-shaped", from ''

Osmerus ''Osmerus'' is a genus of smelt. Species There are currently three recognized species in this genus: * ''Osmerus eperlanus'' (Linnaeus, 1758) (European smelt) * ''Osmerus mordax'' (Mitchill, 1814) ** ''Osmerus mordax dentex'' Steindachner & K ...

'' (the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...

) + the standard

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

order

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

"-formes". It ultimately derives from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''osmé'' (ὀσμή, "pungent smell") +

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''forma'' ("external form"), the former in reference to the characteristic aroma of the flesh of ''Osmerus''.Glare, P.G.W. (ed.) (1968–1982): ''

Oxford Latin Dictionary The ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'' (or ''OLD'') is the standard English lexicon of Classical Latin, compiled from sources written before AD 200. Begun in 1933, it was published in fascicles between 1968 and 1982; a lightly revised second edition ...

'' (1st ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford.

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

(2006)
Order Osmeriformes
Version of 2006-OCT-09. Retrieved 2009-SEP-28. In the classification used here, the order Osmeriformes contains two

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 ...

s, six

families 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. Ideall ...

, some 20 genera, and about 93

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

. Other authors choose a slightly different arrangement, but whether treated as suborders (Galaxoidei and Osmeroidei) or superfamilies (Galaxoidea and Osmeroidea), the division in two lineages is generally maintained.Nelson, Joseph S. (2006): ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' by the American 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 classification of the ...

'' (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp.194-199 The "marine" smelts and allies (e.g. the odd-looking

barreleye Barreleyes, also known as spook fish (a name also applied to several species of chimaera), are small deep-sea argentiniform fish comprising the family Opisthoproctidae found in tropical-to-temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian ...

s) were formerly included here as suborder Argentinoidei; they are now usually considered more distantly related than it was believed and treated as order

Argentiniformes The Argentiniformes are an order of ray-finned fish whose distinctness was recognized only fairly recently. In former times, they were included in the Osmeriformes (typical smelt and allies) as suborder Argentinoidei. That term refers only to ...

. When the marine smelts were included here, the subdivisions of the Osmeriformes were down-

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

by one.

Description and ecology

Osmeriformes are small to mid-sized slender fish. Their

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

is usually included in the mouth's gape, and most of them have an

adipose fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

as is often found in the

. Their terosphenoidusually has a

ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek language, Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. Th ...

flange, and the

vomer The vomer (; lat, vomer, lit=ploughshare) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxill ...

has a short posterior shaft. They have reduced or even missing

articular The articular bone is part of the lower jaw of most vertebrates, including most jawed fish, amphibians, birds and various kinds of reptiles, as well as ancestral mammals. Anatomy In most vertebrates, the articular bone is connected to two oth ...

and mesopterygoid teeth, and the basisphenoid and orbitosphenoid bones are entirely absent. Their scales lack radii. Despite the term "

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

smelts", the members of the Osmeriformes are generally

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

, or

amphidromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...

anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...

migrants. Even the sedentary freshwater species in this family are usually tolerant of considerable changes in

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

. Almost all osmeriforms

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment, and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** '' Spawn: ...

in fresh water, thus the marine species are generally

. They are found in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

oceans worldwide and in temperate

of the

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region ...

and around the South Pacific region; only a handful of

occur in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

waters. The

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s are surrounded by an adhesive

membrane A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but stops others. Such things may be molecules, ions, or other small particles. Membranes can be generally classified into synthetic membranes and biological membranes. B ...

Systematics

With the

separated as a distinct order, the remaining Osmeriformes appear to be a

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 gro ...

group. Their placement in the Protacanthopterygii is not entirely clear, but may well be the closest living relatives of the

Esociformes The Esociformes () are a small order of ray-finned fish, with two families, Umbridae and Esocidae. The pikes of genus '' Esox'' give the order its name. This order is closely related to the Salmoniformes, the two comprising the superorder Prot ...

(

s and mudminnows). Others consider them closer to the

Salmoniformes Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...

(

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

s and relatives). A closer relationship to the

Stomiiformes Stomiiformes is an order of deep-sea ray-finned fishes of very diverse morphology. It includes, for example, dragonfishes, lightfishes (Gonostomatidae and Phosichthyidae), loosejaws, marine hatchetfishes and viperfishes. The order contains 4 ...

than previously assumed is supported by

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

and

DNA sequence DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...

data. But this can be simply taken to suggest that the

Stenopterygii Stenopterygii are a superorder of ray-finned fish in the infraclass Teleostei. Their validity is somewhat doubtful, as the group was established to separate, out of a large group of closely related Teleostei, a mere two rather peculiarly autapom ...

" ought to be included in the Protacanthopterygii, rather than a particularly close relationship between the two orders. Canterbury galaxias, Galaxias vulgaris

The classification of the Osmeriformes as approached here is: * Family † Spaniodontidae Jordan 1905 * Suborder Retropinnoidei ** Family

Retropinnidae The Retropinnidae are a family of bony fishes that contains the Southern Hemisphere smelts and graylings. They are closely related to the northern smelts (Osmeridae), which they greatly resemble, but not to the northern graylings (''Thymallus'') ...

(Australian-New Zealand smelts and graylings) * Suborder Osmeroidei ** Family

Osmeridae Smelts are a family of small fish, the Osmeridae, found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, as well as rivers, streams and lakes in Europe, North America and Northeast Asia. They are also known as freshwater smelts or typical smelts ...

(freshwater smelts, typical smelts) ** Family

Plecoglossidae The ayu sweetfish (''Plecoglossus altivelis''), or sweetfish, is a species of fish. It is the only species in the genus ''Plecoglossus'' and family Plecoglossidae. It is a relative of the smelts and other fish in the order Osmeriformes. Nativ ...

(Ayu) ** Family

Salangidae Salangidae, the icefishes or noodlefishes, are a family of small osmeriform fish, related to the smelts. They are found in Eastern Asia, ranging from the Russian Far East in the north to Vietnam in the south, with the highest species richness in ...

(noodlefishes, "icefish") A possible

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

osmeriform is '' Spaniodon'', a

piscivore A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that eats primarily fish. The name ''piscivore'' is derived . Piscivore is equivalent to the Greek-derived word ichthyophage, both of which mean "fish eater". Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evoluti ...

from

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

seas. The group originated probably somewhat earlier, but a

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

age maybe about 110

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago). ...

or so is likely. The families

Galaxiidae The Galaxiidae are a family of mostly small freshwater fish in the Southern Hemisphere. The majority live in Southern Australia or New Zealand, but some are found in South Africa, southern South America, Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia, and th ...

and Lepidogalaxiidae were at one time placed together with

in the sub order Galaxoidei, however with new molecular studies they have been elevated to the ordinal level.

Timeline of genera

ImageSize = width:1500px height:auto barincrement:15px PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px Period = from:-145.5 till:15 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:-145.5 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-145.5 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:cretaceous value:rgb(0.5,0.78,0.31) id:earlycretaceous value:rgb(0.63,0.78,0.65) id:latecretaceous value:rgb(0.74,0.82,0.37) 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:NAM7 bar:NAM8 bar:NAM9 bar:NAM10 bar:NAM11 bar:NAM12 bar:NAM13 bar:NAM14 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: -145.5 till: -99.6 color:earlycretaceous text: Early from: -99.6 till: -66 color:latecretaceous text:

Late Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

from: -66 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text: Paleo. from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text: Eo. from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text: Oligo. from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text: Mio. from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Pl. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pl. from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:eratop from: -145.5 till: -66 color:cretaceous text:

from: -66 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

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

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:earlycretaceous bar:NAM1 from: -145.5 till: -140.2 text: Nybelinoides color:eocene bar:NAM2 from: -55.8 till: 0 text:

color:eocene bar:NAM3 from: -55.8 till: 0 text:

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

color:eocene bar:NAM4 from: -48.6 till: -28.4 text:

Proargentina ''Glossanodon'' is a genus of fishes in the family Argentinidae. Extant species There are currently 15 recognized extant species in this genus: * ''Glossanodon australis'' Kobyliansky, 1998 (Southern herring smelt) * ''Glossanodon danieli'' ...

color:eocene bar:NAM5 from: -37.2 till: 0 text: Ophisthoproctus color:oligocene bar:NAM6 from: -33.9 till: -28.4 text: Enoplophthalmus color:oligocene bar:NAM7 from: -28.4 till: -23.03 text: Carpathichthys color:oligocene bar:NAM8 from: -28.4 till: 0 text:

Hypomesus ''Hypomesus'' is a genus of smelts (Osmeridae), consisting of five species found in the northern hemisphere. Species There are currently five recognized species in this genus: * ''Hypomesus japonicus'' ( Brevoort, 1856) * '' Hypomesus nipponens ...

color:miocene bar:NAM9 from: -15.97 till: 0 text:

Bathylagus ''Bathylagus'' is a genus of deep-sea smelts, some species of which are noted for having stylophthalmine larvae. Species The seven recognized, extant species in this genus are: * '' Bathylagus andriashevi'' Kobyliansky, 1986 * '' Bathylagus a ...

color:miocene bar:NAM10 from: -11.608 till: 0 text:

Nansenia Nansenia may refer to: * ''Nansenia'' (fish) - a genus of bony fish *853 Nansenia 853 Nansenia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It is named after the Norwegian polar explorer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel- ...

color:pliocene bar:NAM11 from: -5.332 till: 0 text:

Spirinchus ''Spirinchus'' is a genus of smelts (Osmeridae Smelts are a family of small fish, the Osmeridae, found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, as well as rivers, streams and lakes in Europe, North America and Northeast Asia. They are ...

color:pliocene bar:NAM12 from: -5.332 till: 0 text:

Maulisia ''Maulisia'' is a genus of tubeshoulders. Species There are currently five recognized species in this genus: * ''Maulisia acuticeps'' Yuri Igorevich Sazonov, Sazonov, 1976 (Sharpsnout tubeshoulder) * ''Maulisia argipalla'' Tetsuo Matsui, Matsui ...

color:pleistocene bar:NAM13 from: -2.588 till: 0 text: Mallotus color:pleistocene bar:NAM14 from: -2.588 till: 0 text:

Allosmerus ''Allosmerus'' is a monotypic genus of smelt. Its sole species, ''Allosmerus elongatus'', the whitebait smelt, is an uncommon Northeast Pacific smelt, about which little is known. Originally described as both ''Osmerus attenuatus'' and ''O. elon ...

PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 bar:period from: -145.5 till: -99.6 color:earlycretaceous text: Early from: -99.6 till: -66 color:latecretaceous text:

from: -66 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

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

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

Description and ecology

Systematics

Timeline of genera

References

Further reading