Osteoglossidae

Osteoglossidae is a family of large-sized freshwater fish, which includes the arowanas. They are commonly known as bonytongues. The family has been regarded as containing two extant subfamilies Arapaiminae and Osteoglossinae, with a total of five living genera, but these are regarded as valid families in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes The extinct Phareodontinae are known from worldwide during the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene; they are generally considered to be crown group osteoglossids that are more closely related to one of the extant osteoglossid subfamilies than the other, though their exact position varies.

Evolution

Osteoglossids are basal teleosts that originated during the Cretaceous, and are placed in the actinopterygian order Osteoglossiformes. The traditionally defined wider family includes several extant species from South America, one from Africa, two from Asia, and two from Australia. The earliest known osteoglossid is Cretophareodus from the middle Campanian of the Dinosaur Park Formation, Canada, but a potentially older genus may be Chanopsis from the Albian of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Although currently restricted to freshwater habitats in the tropics, the group was much more widespread during the Cretaceous and Paleogene, with genera known from North America and Europe, including marine taxa such as Brychaetus. An indeterminate marine osteoglossid is known to have inhabited the seas around Greenland in the Early Paleocene, and they later become diverse in marine habitats during the Eocene, with many genera known from Europe.

thumb|[[Phareodus|Phareodus testis, a famous member of the extinct subfamily Phareodontinae]]Family Osteoglossidae Bonaparte, 1831
Genus ?†Chanopsis Casier, 1961
Genus ?†Chauliopareion Murray and Wilson, 2005 (possibly a basal osteoglossiform)
Genus †Brychaetus Woodward, 1901
Genus †Cretophareodus Li, 1996
Genus ?†Foreyichthys Taverne, 1979
Genus †Furichthys Bonde, 2008
Genus †Magnigena Forey & Hilton, 2010
Genus †Monopteros Volta, 1796
Genus †Musperia Sanders, 1934
Genus ?†Opsithrissops Daniltshenko, 1968
Genus †Phareoides Taverne, 1973 (sometimes treated as synonymous with Phareodus)
Genus †Phareodus Leidy, 1873
Genus †Phareodusichthys Gayet, 1991
Genus †Ridewoodichthys Taverne, 2009
Genus †Taverneichthys Kumar, Rana & Paliwal, 2005

The Phareodontinae is sometimes treated as a valid family, the Phareodontidae, proposed by Jordan in 1925.