Caproidae, or boarfishes, are a small family of marine fishes with a single extant species, the boarfish (Capros aper), native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, as well as a few other extinct species and genera.
Etymology
Caproidae comes from the genus name Capros which is derived from the Greek word kapros meanin "boar". This is a reference to the rather cylindrical snout, ending in a small mouth with a protrusible upper lip which Bonaparte thought had some resemblance to snout of a pig or boar.
Taxonomy
thumb|Fossil specimens of [[Capros rhenanus]]
Caproidae was first proposed as a family in 1835 by the French naturalist and ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Caproidae was formerly placed in the order Zeiformes with the dories, but were later moved to Perciformes based on percoid characteristics of the caudal skeleton and other morphological evidence. More recent revisions of Percomorpha have seen them placed in Caproiformes or Acanthuriformes. Presently, Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes places them in the latter. However, the monophyly of this classification has always been poorly attested, and presently Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes recognizes both as distinct families.
Fossil remains of caproids are largely restricted to the Mediterranean and former Paratethyan region, suggesting that this region was important to the evolution of the group. The only surviving member, the boarfish, is also similarly restricted to the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, continuing the unique extent of the group's distribution.
- †Proantigonia <small>Kramberger, 1882</small> (Early Oligocene to Middle Miocene of Croatia, Romania, Ukraine, and North Caucasus, Russia)