Halecomorphi

Halecomorphi is a taxon of ray-finned bony fish in the clade Neopterygii. The only extant Halecomorph species are the bowfin (Amia calva) and eyespot bowfin (Amia ocellicauda), but the group contains many extinct species in several families (including Amiidae, Caturidae, Liodesmidae, Sinamiidae) in the order Amiiformes, as well as the extinct orders Ionoscopiformes, Ophiopsiformes, Panxianichthyiformes, and Parasemionotiformes. The fossil record of halecomorphs goes back at least to the Early Triassic epoch.

Ionoscopiformes is an extinct order of largely marine, ray-finned fish generally considered to be the sister group to Amiiformes, an order that contains the modern Bowfin. The earliest members of the order are found in Middle Triassic deposits in all continents besides Australia and Antarctica, showing that the group was very widespread even during this time. They would continue to diversify throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous with the youngest records of the group being during the Albian. The order has had a complicated taxonomic history since the 2010s with authors suggesting that the gro