page_title: Cypriniformes
section_title: Systematics
hierarchical_section_title: Cypriniformes / Systematics
context_page_description: Cypriniformes is an order of ray-finned fish, including the carps, minnows, loaches, and relatives. This order contains 11-12, although some authorities have designated as many as 23, families over 400 genera, and more than 4,250 species, with new species being described every few months or so, and new genera being recognized frequently. They are most diverse in southeastern Asia, and are entirely absent from Australia and South America. At 112 years old, the longest-lived cypriniform fish documented is the bigmouth buffalo.
  Their closest living relatives are the Characiformes, the Gymnotiformes, and the Siluriformes.
context_section_description: Historically, these included all the forms now placed in the superorder Ostariophysi except the catfish, which were placed in the order Siluriformes. By this definition, the Cypriniformes were paraphyletic, so recently, the orders Gonorhynchiformes, Characiformes, (characins and allies), and Gymnotiformes (knifefishes and electric eels) have been separated out to form their own monophyletic orders.
  The families of Cypriniformes are traditionally divided into two suborders. Superfamily Cyprinioidea contains the carps and minnows (Cyprinidae) and also the mountain carps as the family Psilorhynchidae. In 2012, Maurice Kottelat reviewed the superfamily Cobitoidei and under his revision it now consists of the following families: hillstream loaches (Balitoridae), Barbuccidae, Botiidae, suckers (Catostomidae), true loaches (Cobitidae), Ellopostomatidae, Gastromyzontidae, sucking loaches (Gyrinocheilidae), stone loaches (Nemacheilidae), Serpenticobitidae and long-finned loaches (Vaillantellidae).
  Catostomoidea is usually treated as a junior synonym of the Cobitoidei, but it could be split off the Catostomidae and Gyrinocheilidae in a distinct superfamily; the Catostomoidea might be closer relatives of the carps and minnows than of the "true" loaches. While the Cyprinioidea seem more "primitive" than the loach-like forms, they were apparently successful enough never to shift from the original ecological niche of the basal Ostariophysi. Yet, from the ecomorphologically conservative main lineage apparently at least two major radiations branched off. These diversified from the lowlands into torrential river habitats, acquiring similar habitus and adaptations in the process.
  The mountain carps are the highly apomorphic Cyprinidae, perhaps close to true carps (Cyprininae), or maybe to the danionins. While some details about the phylogenetic structures of this massively diverse family are known – e.g. that Cultrinae and Leuciscinae are rather close relatives and stand apart from Cyprininae –  no good consensus exists yet on how the main lineages are interrelated. A systematic list, from the most ancient to the most modern lineages, can thus be given as:
  Suborder Cyprinoidei
  Family Acheilognathidae Bleeker, 1863
  Family Cyprinidae Rafinesque, 1815 (carps, koi, goldfish) and minnows
  Family Danionidae Bleeker, 1863
  Family Gobionidae Bleeker, 1863
  Family Leptobarbidae Bleeker, 1864
  Family Leuciscidae Bonaparte, 1853
  Family Paedocyprididae Mayden & Chen, 2010
  Family Psilorhynchidae Hora, 1926
  Family Sundadanionidae Mayden & Chen, 2010
  Family Tanichthyidae Mayden & Chen, 2010
  Family Tincidae Jordan, 1878
  Family Xenocyprididae Günther, 1868
  Suborder Catostomoidei
  Family Catostomidae Agassiz 1850 (suckers)
  Suborder Gyrinocheiloidei
  Family Gyrinocheilidae Gill 1905 (algae eaters; sucking loaches)
  Suborder Cobitoidei
  Family Balitoridae Swainson 1839 (hillstream loaches)
  Family Barbuccidae Kottelat 2012 (scooter/fire-eyed loaches)
  Family Botiidae Berg 1940 (pointface loaches)
  Family Cobitidae Swainson 1838 (true loaches)
  Family Ellopostomatidae Bohlen & Šlechtová 2009 (square-head/sturgeon-mouthed loaches)
  Family Gastromyzontidae Fowler 1905 (sucker loaches)
  Family Nemacheilidae Regan 1911 (brook/stone loaches)
  Family Serpenticobitidae Kottelat 2012 (snake/serpent loaches)
  Family Vaillantellidae Nalbant & Bănărescu 1977 (longfin loaches)
caption: Erimyzon sucetta, a small sucker
exif: {}