Cottoidei is a
suborder
Order () 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 recognized ...
of
ray-finned fish
Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...
es which, according to the 5th edition of ''
Fishes of the World
''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...
'', is placed within the
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
...
Scorpaeniformes
The Scorpaeniformes are a diverse Order (biology), order of Actinopterygii, 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 spec ...
, alongside the
scorpionfishes,
flatheads,
eelpouts,
stickleback
The sticklebacks are a family of ray-finned fishes, the Gasterosteidae which have a Holarctic distribution in fresh, brackish and marine waters. They were thought to be related to the pipefish and seahorses but are now thought to be more close ...
s and related fishes.
Taxonomy
Cottoidei was first proposed as a taxonomic grouping in 1835 by the Swiss-American zoologist Louis Agassiz.
[ The 5th edition of ''Fishes of the World'' classifies the Cottoidei as a suborder of the order Scorpaeniformes.][ Other workers have found that if the Scorpaeniformes, as delimited in ''Fishes of the World'', is not included in the ]Perciformes
Perciformes (), also called the Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish in the clade Percomorpha. ''Perciformes'' means " perch-like". Among the well-known members of this group are perches and darters ( Percidae), and als ...
it renders the Perciformes paraphyletic
Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...
. These workers retain the Cottoidei as a suborder within the Perciformes but include the zoarcoids and Sticklebacks and allies as the infraorder
Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between Family_(biology), family and Class_(biology), class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classific ...
s Zoarcales and Gasterosteales while reclassifying most superfamilies of ''Fishes of the World'' as infraorders.
Subdivisions
The Cottoidei is divided into the following superfamilies and families
Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...
:Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
& Gilbert, 1883 (Sablefishes)
* Superfamily Zaniolepidoidea Shinohara, 1994[
** Family Hexagrammidae Jordan, 1888 (Greenlings)
* Superfamily Trichodontoidea Nazarkin & Voskoboinikova, 2000]Rhamphocottidae
Rhamphocottidae is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. The species in this family occur in the North Pacific Ocean.
Taxonomy
Rhamphocottidae was first proposed as a family by the American icht ...
Jordan & Gilbert, 1883 (Grunt sculpins)
** Family Scorpaenichthyidae Jordan & Evermann, 1898
** Family Agonidae Swainson, 1839 (Poachers and sea ravens)
** Family Cottidae Bonaparte, 1831 (Sculpins)
** Family Psychrolutidae Günther, 1861 (Bighead sculpins)
** Family Bathylutichthyidae Balushkin & Voskoboinikova, 1990 (Antarctic sculpins)
* Superfamily Cyclopteroidea Gill, 1873
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q906864
Taxa named by Louis Agassiz
Ray-finned fish suborders