Otocephala

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Otocephala is a clade of ray-finned fishes within the infraclass Teleostei which evolved some 230 million years ago. It is named for the presence of a hearing (otophysic) link from the swimbladder to the inner ear. Other names proposed for the group include Ostarioclupeomorpha and Otomorpha. The clade contains Clupeiformes (herrings) and Ostariophysi, a group of other orders including Cypriniformes (minnows and allies), Gymnotiformes (knifefish), and Siluriformes (catfish). Otocephala may also contain Alepocephaliformes (slickheads), but as yet (2016) without morphological evidence. The clade is sister to Euteleostei which contains the majority of bony fish alive today. In 2015, Benton and colleagues set a "plausible minimum" date for the origin of crown Otocephala as about 228.4 million years ago. They argued that since the oldest locality for any diversity of stem teleosts is the Carnian of Polberg bei Lunz, Austria, whose base is 235 million years old, a rough estimate for Otocephala can be made. The earliest known fossil members of the group date to the Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic, and include the stem-ostariophysan Tischlingerichthys from Germany and the concurrent clupeomorphs Aijaichthys & Ancashichthys from Peru.