| Esociformes Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Northern pike (Esox lucius) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Superorder: | Protacanthopterygii |
| Order: | Esociformes Bleeker, 1859 |
| Type species | |
| Esox lucius | |
| Families | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The Esociformes (/ˈiːsɒsɪfɔːrmiːz/) is a small order of freshwater ray-finned fish, with two families, Umbridae and Esocidae.[1] The pikes of genus Esox give the order its name.
This order is closely related to the Salmoniformes, the two comprising the superorder Protacanthopterygii, and are often included in their order. The esociform fishes first appeared in the mid-Cretaceous — early products of the Euteleostei radiation of that time. They diverged from their sister group Salmoniformes about 110 million years ago, with the extant species having evolved from a common ancestor that lived about 90 million years ago.[2] Today, they are found in weed-choked freshwater habitats in North America and northern Eurasia.
- ^ Robison, Henry W.; Buchanan, Thomas M. (11 March 2020). Fishes of Arkansas. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 978-1-68226-103-3.
- ^ Pan, Qiaowei; Feron, Romain; Jouanno, Elodie; Darras, Hugo; Herpin, Amaury; Koop, Ben; Rondeau, Eric; Goetz, Frederick W.; Larson, Wesley A.; Bernatchez, Louis; Tringali, Mike; Curran, Stephen S.; Saillant, Eric; Denys, Gael Pj; von Hippel, Frank A. (2021). "The rise and fall of the ancient northern pike master sex-determining gene". eLife. 10: e62858. doi:10.7554/eLife.62858. PMC 7870143. PMID 33506762.