Osteoglossidae
Temporal range:
Scleropages leichardti, a fish endemic to Queensland
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Osteoglossiformes
Suborder: Osteoglossoidei
Family: Osteoglossidae
Bonaparte, 1831
Genera

Osteoglossidae is a family of large freshwater fish, which includes the arowanas and arapaima. The family contains two subfamilies Arapaiminae and Osteoglossinae, with a total of five living genera.[1]

Osteoglossids are basal teleosts that originated some time during the Cretaceous, and are placed in the actinopterygiid order Osteoglossiformes. As traditionally defined, the family includes several extant species from South America, one from Africa, two from Asia, and two from Australia.[2] Although currently restricted to the tropics, the group was much more widespread during the Cretaceous and Paleogene, with species known from North America and Europe. In addition, while they are largely known from freshwater habitats, an indeterminate marine osteoglossid is known to have inhabited the seas around Greenland in the Early Paleocene.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Arapaim availability". Britannica. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  2. ↑ Allen, G. R.; Midgley, S. H.; Allen, M. (2002). Field Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of Australia. Perth: Western Australia Museum. pp. 56–58. ISBN 0-7307-5486-3.
  3. ↑ Capobianco, Alessio; Foreman, Ethan; Friedman, Matt (2021). Cavin, Lionel (ed.). "A Paleocene (Danian) marine osteoglossid (Teleostei, Osteoglossomorpha) from the Nuussuaq Basin of Greenland, with a brief review of Palaeogene marine bonytongue fishes". Papers in Palaeontology. 7 (1): 625–640. doi:10.1002/spp2.1291. hdl:2027.42/167033. ISSN 2056-2799.


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