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Ginglymodi is a clade of ray-finned fish containing modern-day (Lepisosteidae) and their extinct relatives (including the family Lepidotidae) in the order Lepisosteiformes, the extinct orders Semionotiformes and Kyphosichthyiformes, and various other extinct taxa. Ginglymodi is one of the two major subgroups of the infraclass Holostei, the other one being Halecomorphi, which contains the bowfin and eyespot bowfin and their fossil relatives.
Ginglymodi underwent substantial diversification during the Late Triassic and the Late Jurassic, with the Lepisosteiformes and Semionotiformes having likely diverged during the Middle Triassic. Early non-gar ginglymodians of all groups, but especially early lepisosteiforms, show heavy morphological convergence with modern Cypriniformes (carp and relatives), suggesting that they may have had a similar ecological niche. Notably, molecular evidence suggests that the cypriniforms may have originated and diversified around the same time and place (Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Southeast Asia) that the similar freshwater ginglymodians showed major diversification. Eventually, some ginglymodians evolved a more predatory lifestyle, with the earliest known true gars from the Late Jurassic. Ginglymodians underwent a major decline during the mid-Cretaceous, eventually leaving gars as the only surviving members of the group. Gar fossils have been found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. Only seven species exist today, distributed in the freshwater systems of North America.
Phylogenetic relationships among different groups of ginglymodians (cladogram after Xu & Ma 2023):
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