Common names include mudfish, mud pike, dogfish, grindle, grinnel, swamp trout, and choupique.

It is regarded as a relict, being one of only two surviving species of the Halecomorphi, a group of fish that first appeared during the Early Triassic, around 250 million years ago.

Bowfins are demersal freshwater piscivores, commonly found throughout much of the eastern United States,[2] and in southern Ontario and Quebec.

Fossil deposits indicate Amiiformes were once widespread in both freshwater and marine environments across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Their preferred habitat includes vegetated sloughs, lowland rivers and lakes, swamps, and backwater areas; they are also occasionally found in brackish water.

[11][12] The body of the bowfin is elongated and cylindrical, with the sides and back olive to brown in color, often with vertical bars and dark reticulations or another camouflaged pattern.

[10][16][17] The bowfin is so named for its long, undulating dorsal fin consisting of 145 to 250 rays that runs from the middle of the back to the base of the tail.

The other set of teeth, located posteriorly and connected to the hyomandibular bone, is made up of pharyngeal tooth patches, which are used for sorting out nutrients and grinding down larger pieces of food.

[24][25] Northern snakeheads (Channa argus) are commonly mistaken for bowfin because of similarities in appearance, most noticeably their elongated, cylindrical shape, and long dorsal fin that runs along their backs.

Northern snakeheads are piscivorous fish native to the rivers and estuaries of China, Russia, and Korea that have been introduced and become established in parts of North America.

This ability to open and close the jaw helps the bowfin to be an active predator that can catch bigger prey and digest them.

In bowfin neural spines and ribs also increase in prominence, an evolutionary aspect that helps provide additional support and stabilize unpaired fins.

This type of tail gives the body a streamlined shape which allows the bowfin to improve its swimming ability by reducing drag.

It is not unusual for riverine species like bowfin to move into backwaters with flood currents, and become trapped when water levels recede.

[7][45][46][47] While aestivation is anecdotally documented by multiple researchers, laboratory experiments have suggested instead that bowfin are physiologically incapable of surviving more than three to five days of air exposure.

[50] Competing hypotheses and debates continue over the evolution of Amia and relatives, including their relationship among basal extant teleosts, and organization of clades.

Monophyletic Holostei were also recovered by at least two nuclear gene analyses, in an independent study of fossil and extant fish,[53][54] and in an analysis of ultraconserved genomic elements.

They are divided into three divisions: The following is a species list[citation needed] The bowfin genome contains an intact ParaHox gene cluster, similar to the bichir and to most other vertebrates.

[7][64][65] Research from the late 1800s to the 1980s suggests a trend of intentional stockings of non-indigenous fish into ponds, lakes and rivers in the United States.

[66] Introductions of bowfin to areas they were considered a non-indigenous species included various lakes, rivers and drainages in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

[64] Many of the introductions were intentional stockings; however, there is no way to positively determine distribution resulting from flood transfers, or other inadvertent migrations.

Bowfin are typically piscivorous, but as an introduced species are capable of being voracious predators that pose a threat to native fish and their prey.

[64][67] Bowfin prefer vegetated sloughs, lowland rivers and lakes, swamps, backwater areas, and are occasionally found in brackish water.

[61] Bowfin spawn in the spring or early summer, typically between April and June, more commonly at night[41][61] in abundantly vegetated, clear shallow water in weed beds over sand bars, and also under stumps, logs, and bushes.

During the seven to nine days required for yolk-sac absorption, they attach to vegetation by means of an adhesive organ on their snout, and remain protected by the parent male bowfin.

[68] When the fry are able to swim and forage on their own, they will form a school and leave the nest accompanied by the parent male bowfin who slowly circles them to prevent separation.

[12] The mollusk Megalonaias gigantea lays eggs in the bowfin gills, that are then externally fertilized by sperm passing in the water flow.

The current tackle record is 21.5 lb (9.8 kg)[8][65][74] Bowfin were once considered to have little commercial value because of its poor-tasting meat which has been referred to as "soft, bland-tasting and of poor texture".

[78] Concentration of mercury biomagnifies as it passes up the food chain from organisms on lower trophic levels to apex predators.

When compared to smaller, short-lived fish, bowfin tend to concentrate mercury at higher levels thereby making them less safe for human consumption.