Macroramphosinae

Macroramphosinae, the snipefishes and bellowsfishes is a subfamily of oviparous, marine fish which form part of the superfamily Centriscoidea, which is one of the three superfamilies in the suborder Syngnathoidei of the order Syngnathiformes, which includes the seahorses, pipefishes, trumpetfishes and dragonets.
It has been considered to be a subfamily of the Centriscidae but Nelson classified it as a family. However, Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes has returned to treating it as a subfamily.

Genera

There are currently eight recognized extant species in three genera which are placed in the Macroramphosidae:Centriscops Gill, 1862Macroramphosus Lacepède, 1803Notopogon Regan, 1914

Fossil record

The earliest known syngnathiform is a species of Macroramphosidae, Gasteroramphosus zuppichini from the late Cretaceous, which is similar in form to Marcroramphosus but which has some characters which are suggestive of a relation to Gasterosteoidei.