Order Summary for Osteoglossiformes

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Order Summary for Osteoglossiformes
Main Ref	:	Nelson, J.S., 1994
Order	:	Osteoglossiformes bony tongues
Class	:	Teleostei
Sister Order	:	Elopiformes 150 M years
Ref.	:	Guo-Qing, L. and M. Wilson, 1996 \| Helfman, G., B. Collette and D. Facey, 1997
First Fossil Record	:	late Jurassic
Occurs in	:		Marine	Fresh	Brackish
Remark	:	Intestine passes posteriorly to left of esophagus and stomach; parasphenoid and tounge bones usually with well-developed teeth and forming a shearing bite (mesopterygoid and usually the ectopterygoid also toothed); premaxilla small and fixed to the skull; no supramaxilla; caudal fin skeleton, except in Hiodon, with large first ural centrum and no urodermals, one or more epurals fused with uroneurals; caudal fin with 16 or fewer branched rays; nasal capsule rigid, no antorbital-supraorbital system for pumping water over olfactory epithelium; epipleural intermuscular bones absent; one or two pyloric caeca, one caecum in Hiodon and Pantodon and two in other osteoglossiforms.
Class etymology	:	Greek aktis = ray, thunderbolt, beam + Greek pterygion, diminutive of pteryx = wing, fin. Ref. 45335.
Order etymology	:	Greek, osteon = bone + Greek, glossa = tongue + Latin, forma = shape (Ref. 45335).
Families	:	( n = 5 ) Arapaimidae Gymnarchidae Mormyridae Notopteridae Osteoglossidae Pantodontidae