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Cottoidei

Cottoidei is a suborder of ray-finned fishes in the order Perciformes. It contains sculpins, snailfish, blobfish, greenlings, and sablefish. They are primarily found in temperate, polar, and deep waters, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.

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 it renders the Perciformes paraphyletic. These workers retain the Cottoidei as a suborder within the Perciformes but include the zoarcoids and Sticklebacks and allies as the infraorders Zoarcales and Gasterosteales while reclassifying most superfamilies of Fishes of the World as infraorders. Presently, Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes keeps it as a suborder of Perciformes.

Fossil otoliths of cottoids date to the Early Eocene, while skeletal remains only appear from the Early Oligocene onwards.

Subdivisions

The Cottoidei is divided into the following superfamilies, families and subfamilies:

References