Osteoglossidae is a family of large freshwater fish, which includes the arowanas and arapaima. The family contains two subfamilies

Arapaiminae Arapaiminae is a subfamily of freshwater osteoglossiform (bony-tongued) fishes belonging to the family Osteoglossidae. It includes the South American arapaimas of the Amazon and Essequibo basins and the African arowana (''Heterotis niloticus' ...

and

Osteoglossinae Arowanas are freshwater bony fish of the subfamily Osteoglossinae, also known as bony tongues (the latter name is now often reserved for Arapaiminae). In this family of fish, the head is bony and the elongated body is covered by large, heavy s ...

, with a total of five living genera. Osteoglossids are basal teleosts that originated some time during the

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 ...

, and are placed in the

actinopterygii 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 ...

d order

Osteoglossiformes Osteoglossiformes (Greek: "bony tongues") is a relatively primitive order of ray-finned fish that contains two sub-orders, the Osteoglossoidei and the Notopteroidei. All of at least 245 living species inhabit freshwater. They are found in South ...

. As traditionally defined, the family includes several

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

species from South America, one from Africa, one from Asia, and two from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

References

Osteoglossidae Ray-finned fish families {{Osteoglossiformes-stub