| Loaches Temporal range: [1]
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|---|---|
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| Examples of several loach families | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Superfamily: | Cobitoidei Fitzinger, 1832[2] |
| Families | |
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see text | |
Loaches are ray-finned fish of the suborder Cobitoidei. They are freshwater, benthic (bottom-dwelling) fish found in rivers and creeks throughout Eurasia and northern Africa.[3] Loaches are among the most diverse groups of fish; the 1249 known species of Cobitoidei comprise about 107 genera divided among 9 families.[4][5]
- ^ Chen, Jiao (2015). "First fossil cobitid (Teleostei: Cypriniformes) from EarlyMiddle Oligocene deposits of South China" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica.
- ^ Thomas J. Near; Christine E. Thacker. "Phylogenetic Classification of Living and Fossil Ray-Finned Fishes (Actinopterygii)". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 65 (1): 3–302. doi:10.3374/014.065.0101.
- ^ Kottelat, M. (2012). "Conspectus cobitidum: an inventory of the loaches of the world (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei)". The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Supplement no. 26: 1–199.
- ^ Fricke, R.; Eschmeyer, W. N.; van der Laan, R., eds. (2019). "Eschmeyer's catalog of fishes: genera, species, references". Electronic version accessed February 2019.
- ^ Nelson, J. S.; Grande, T. C.; Wilson, M. V. H. (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 189–193. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6.