Notothenioidei

Notothenioidei is one of 19 suborders of the order Perciformes. The group is found mainly in Antarctic and Subantarctic waters, with some species ranging north to southern Australia and southern South America. Notothenioids constitute approximately 90% of the fish biomass in the continental shelf waters surrounding Antarctica.

== Evolution and geographic distribution == The Southern Ocean has supported fish habitats for 400 million years; however, modern notothenioids likely appeared sometime after the Eocene epoch. This period marked the cooling of the Southern Ocean, resulting in the stable, frigid conditions that have persisted to the present day. Another key factor in the evolution of notothenioids is the preponderance of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), a large, slow-moving current that extends to the seafloor and precludes most migration to and from the Antarctic region. The earliest known notothenioids are the fossils Proeleginops and Mesetaichthys from the Eocene La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island, the latter of which already shows close similarities with the extant Dissostichus.