Cottidae

The Cottidae are a family of fish in the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. It is the largest sculpin family, with about 275 species in 70 genera. They are referred to simply as cottids to avoid confusion with sculpins of other families.

Cottids are distributed worldwide, especially in boreal and colder temperate climates. The center of diversity is the northern Pacific Ocean. Species occupy many types of aquatic habitats, including marine and fresh waters, and deep and shallow zones. A large number occur in near-shore marine habitat types, such as kelp forests and shallow reefs. They can be found in estuaries and in bodies of fresh water.

Most cottids are small fish, under 10 cm (3.9 in) in length.

The earliest fossil remains of cottids are otoliths potentially assignable to Enophrys euglyphus from the Early Eocene-aged London Clay of England. The earliest known skeletal remains of cottids are of Cottus cervicornis (taxonomy uncertain) from the Early Oligocene of Belgium. Cottids become more common in the fossil record from the Miocene onwards.