Trichodontidae was first proposed as a family in 1869 by the Dutch herpetologist and ichthyologistPieter Bleeker.[1] For a long time the family was thought to be classified within the order Trachiniformes but in 2000 the family was reclassified by the Russian biologists Mikhail Nazarkin and Olga Voskoboinikova the monotypic superfamilyTrichodontoidea in the suborderCottoidei of the order Scorpaeniformes.[3] Other workers have found that if the Scorpaeniformes, as delimited in the 5the edition of Fishes of the World, is not included in the Perciformes it renders the Perciformes paraphyletic. These workers retain the Cottoidei as a suborder within the Perciformes but include the zoarcoids and Sticklebacks and allies as the infraorders Zoarcales and Gasterosteales while reclassifying most the superfamilies of Fishes of the Worldasinfraorders with the Trichodontidae included in the infraorder Cottales.[4]
Genera and species
The family consists of two extant monotypic genera: