Salmoniformes (, lit. "salmon-shaped") is an

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 ...

of ray-finned fishes native to the temperate and subarctic

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

. It contains two suborders: Salmonoidei (containing only the Salmonidae) and Esocoidei (containing pikes and mudminnows). In addition, potential

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 preserve ...

members of the group, dating back to the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent 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 ''cre ...

, are also known from Europe and Africa. Both large-sized members of this order (

Salmonidae Salmonidae (, ) is a family (biology), family of ray-finned fish, the only extant member of the suborder Salmonoidei, consisting of 11 extant genera and over 200 species collectively known as "salmonids" or "salmonoids". The family includes salmo ...

and

Esocidae Esocidae is a family of ray-finned fish in the order Salmoniformes, which contains pike, pickerel, and mudminnows. While the family traditionally only contained the genus ''Esox'', recent genetic and paleontological research have recovered ''Novu ...

) are important food and sport fish of the Northern Hemisphere.

Taxonomy

The relationship between salmons, pikes, and mudminnows has long been well-attested based on phylogenetic and morphological studies, and all three groups were long placed in the Salmoniformes. In the early 21st century, pikes and mudminnows were split from the Salmoniformes and placed into their own order,

Esociformes The Esocoidei () is a small suborder of freshwater Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish, one of two suborders in the order Salmoniformes. It contains two families, Umbridae and Esocidae. The pikes of genus ''Esox'' give the order its name. This order ...

. However, as recent studies have reaffirmed their close relationship, more recent taxonomic authorities again place the Esociformes as a group within the Salmoniformes (Esocoidei). The following classification is based on ''

Eschmeyer's 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 ...

'': * Order Salmoniformes ** Suborder Esocoidei *** Family

Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; 22 October 178318 September 1840) was a French early 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ult ...

, 1815 - pikes **** Subfamily Dalliinae

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 ...

, 1885 - blackfishes **** Subfamily Esocinae Rafinesque, 1815 - pikes *** Family Umbridae Bonaparte, 1845 - mudminnows ** Suborder Salmonoidei *** Family

Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

, 1816 **** Subfamily Coregoninae Bonaparte, 1845 **** Subfamily Thymallinae

Gill A gill () is a respiration organ, respiratory organ that many aquatic ecosystem, 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 r ...

, 1885 **** Subfamily Salmoninae Cuvier, 1816 The following fossil taxa are also considered much more basal members of this order: * †'' Barcarenichthys'' Gayet, 1989 (

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

of Portugal) * †'' Kermichthys'' Taverne, 1992 (Cenomanian of Morocco) * †'' Pyrenichthys'' Gayet & Lepicard, 1985 (

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

of France) * ?†'' Stompooria'' Anderson, 1998 (potentially a galaxiiform) (Maastrichtian of South Africa) Indeterminate potential salmoniform remains are known from

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya ( million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 m ...

-aged freshwater deposits of Hungary. In the past, other euteleost fish such as the

smelts 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 ...

or tubeshoulders were also placed within this order, but such a placement is now known to be inaccurate. Phylogenetic studies generally recover either the Argentiniformes or the Galaxiiformes as the closest relatives of the Salmoniformes.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9394365 Ray-finned fish orders Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker