Zoarcoidei

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Suborder of ray-finned fishes

title: "Zoarcoidei" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["zoarcoidei", "ray-finned-fish-suborders", "taxa-named-by-theodore-gill"] description: "Suborder of ray-finned fishes" topic_path: "general/zoarcoidei" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoarcoidei" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Suborder of ray-finned fishes ::

| fossil_range = | image = Seewolf.JPG | image_caption = Atlantic wolffish Anarhichas lupus | taxon = Zoarcoidei | authority = | subdivision_ranks = Families | subdivision = see text

Zoarcoidei is a suborder of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Perciformes. The suborder includes the wolffishes, gunnels and eelpouts. The suborder includes about 400 species. These fishes are predominantly found in the boreal seas of the Northern Hemisphere but they have colonised the Southern Hemisphere. Many members of this suborder are extremophiles adapted to deepwater ecosystems (including hydrothermal vents) and polar waters.

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 classifies the Zoarcoidei as a suborder within the order Scorpaeniformes. Other authorities classify this taxon as the infraorder Zoarcales within the suborder Cottoidei of the Perciformes because removing the Scorpaeniformes from the Perciformes renders that taxon paraphyletic. The monophyly of this grouping has still not been fully ascertained but it is generally accepted that the family Bathymasteridae is sister to the remaining lineages in the group.

Phylogenetic evidence suggests that despite their evolutionary, ecological & physiological diversity, zoarcoids have a relatively recent origin; although the stem group diverged from the Gasterosteoidei around the Early Eocene, the crown group only originated around the latest Oligocene, with most of the family-level divergences taking place over the Neogene. The acquirement of the type III antifreeze protein, which allowed for the group to thrive in freezing environments, appears to have occurred prior to the origin of the crown group, potentially during the Early Oligocene. The radiation into extreme habitats appears to have independently occurred in multiple lineages as a consequence of physiological changes and founder events. The earliest fossil remains of the group are from the Miocene of Japan and the mid-late Miocene (late Serravalian or early Tortonian) aged Agnevo Formation of Sakhalin, Russia.

Families and subfamilies

Zoarcoidei has the following families and subfamilies classified under it:

Etymology

Zoarcoidei is based on the genus name Zoarces which was coined by Georges Cuvier in 1829 and which means "live bearing", as in the type species 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. Some fish, like the ones in Stichaeidae and Anarhichadidae, resemble eels by using an Anguilliform body.

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.

Timeline

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References

References

  1. Brownstein, Chase D.. (2025-05-14). "The many origins of extremophile fishes". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
  2. M. Eric Anderson. (1994). "Systematics and Osteology of the Zoarcidae (Teleostei: Perciformes)". Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology.
  3. (2016). "Fishes of the World". Wiley.
  4. (2017). "Phylogenetic classification of bony fishes". BMC Evolutionary Biology.
  5. Mikhail Valerievich Nazarkin. (1998). "New Stichaeid Fishes (Stichaeidae, Perciformes) from Miocene of Sakhalin". Journal of Ichthyology.
  6. Nazarkin, Mikhail V.. (2021-10-01). "The Structure of the Miocene Northwestern Pacific Ichthyofauna as Revealed By Two Fossil Fish Assemblages From Sakhalin Island, Russia". Paleontological Research.
  7. Fricke, R.. (2025). "ESCHMEYER'S CATALOG OF FISHES: CLASSIFICATION".
  8. Brownstein, Chase D.. (2025-05-14). "The many origins of extremophile fishes". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
  9. (6 May 2022). "Order Perciformes (Part 11): Suborder Cottoidea: Infraorder Zoarcales: Family Zoarcidae (eelpouts)". Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara.
  10. Radchenko, Olga. (2016). "Timeline of the evolution of eelpouts from the suborder Zoarcoidei (Perciformes) based on DNA variability". Journal of Ichthyology.

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