Fish superorders

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Acanthopterygii (meaning "spiny-finned one") is a superorder of bony fishes in the class Actinopterygii. Members of this superorder are sometimes called ray-finned fishes for the characteristic sharp, bony rays in their fins; however this name is often given to the class Actinopterygii as a whole.

Ostariophysi is the second-largest superorder of fish. Members of this superorder are called ostariophysians. This diverse group contains 10,758 species, about 28% of known fish species in the world and 68% of freshwater species, and are present on all continents except Antarctica. They have a number of common characteristics such as an alarm substance and a Weberian apparatus. Members of this group include fish important to people for food, sport, the aquarium industry, and research.

The superorder Elopomorpha contains a variety of types of fishes that range from typical silvery-colored species, such as the tarpons and ladyfishes of the Elopiformes and the bonefishes of the Albuliformes, to the long and slender, smooth-bodied eels of the Anguilliformes. The one characteristic uniting this group of fishes is they all have leptocephalus larvae, which are unique to the Elopomorpha. No other fishes have this type of larvae.

Osteoglossomorpha is a superorder of bony fish in the Teleostei.

Protacanthopterygii is a superorder of ray-finned fish. They inhabit both marine and freshwater habitats. They appear to have evolved in the Cretaceous or perhaps late Jurassic, originating probably roughly 150 million years ago; fossils of them and the closely related Otocephala are known from throughout the Cretaceous.

Paracanthopterygii is a superorder of fishes. Members of this group are called paracanthopterygians.

thumb|left|Stomiidae ([[Stomiiformes), from top to bottom:Northern Stoplight Loosejaw (Malacosteus niger),Eustomias braueri,Bathophilus vaillanti,Leptostomias gladiator,Rhadinesthes decimus,Photostomias guernei and its mouth]]

Clupeomorpha is a superorder of ray-finned fish which belongs to the clade Otocephala. Represented today only by the diverse, economically-important order Clupeiformes (containing herrings, anchovies and allies), it was formerly even more diverse, with the extinct order Ellimmichthyiformes also known. Fossil records of this group date back to the Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic, with the ellimmichthyiform genera Aijaichthys and Ancashichthys.

The Neoteleostei is a large clade of bony fish mostly consisting of marine clades. Only three lineages have freshwater species: Percopsiformes (Troutperches), which lives exclusively in freshwater, Gadiformes (cods), which is largely marine except from burbot that live in freshwater and a few populations of cod in brackish water, and the Percomorpha, which, in addition to several marine groups, also have many freshwater forms.