Antennariids are known as anglerfish in Australia, where the term "frogfish" refers to members of the unrelated family Batrachoididae.

In keeping with this camouflage, frogfishes typically move slowly, lying in wait for prey, and then striking extremely rapidly, in as little as 6 milliseconds.

Few traces of frogfishes remain in the fossil record, though Antennarius monodi is known from the Miocene of Algeria and Eophryne barbuttii is known from the Eocene of Italy.

Antennarius suffixes -ius to antenna, an allusion to first dorsal spine being adapted into a tentacle on the snout used as a lure to attract prey.

[3] ‘kThe monospecific genus Tathicarpus is the most derived member of this grouping and represents a separate lineage from all other frogfishes, leading to some consideration of it being placed in its own family, the Tathicarpidae.

[9] Frogfishes live in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

They extend beyond the 20 °C isotherms in the area of the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, along the Atlantic coast of the United States, on the south coast of Australia and the northern tip of New Zealand, coastal Japan, around Durban, South Africa, and at Baja California, Mexico.

Frogfish live generally on the ocean floor around coral or rock reefs, at most to 100 m (330 ft) deep.

Ranging from 2.5–38 cm (0.98–14.96 in) long, their plump, high-backed, unstreamlined body is scaleless and bare, often covered with bumpy, bifurcated spinules.

[15] Some of them resemble fish, some shrimp, some polychaetes, some tubeworms, and some simply a formless lump; one genus, Echinophryne, has no esca at all.

[citation needed] The unusual appearance of the frogfish functions to conceal it from predators and sometimes to mimic a potential meal to lure it in.

In 2005, a species was discovered, the striated frogfish, that mimics a sea urchin, while the sargassumfish is coloured to blend in with the surrounding sargassum.

[10] Frogfishes generally do not move very much, preferring to lie on the sea floor and wait for prey to approach.

Then, when it approaches within roughly seven body-lengths, the frogfish begins to move its illicium in such a way that the esca mimics the motions of the animal it resembles.

[19] The water flows out through the gills, while the prey is swallowed and the esophagus closed with a special muscle to keep the victim from escaping.

Whether the spawn is predetermined by some external factor, such as the phase of the moon, or if the male is attracted to a smell or signal released by the female, is unknown.

A few species are substrate-spawners, notably the genera Lophiocharon, Phyllophryne, and Rhycherus, which lay their eggs on a solid surface, such as a plant or rock.

After this stage, at a length between 15 and 28 mm (0.59 and 1.10 in), they have the form of adult frogfish and begin their lives on the sea floor.

In the northern Italian formation at Monte Bolca, formed from the sedimentation of the Tethys Ocean in the middle Eocene (45 million years ago), a 3-cm (1.2 in) fossil named Histionotophorus bassani was initially described as a frogfish, but was later thought to belong to the closely related extant genus Brachionichthys or handfish.

[22] In 2009, a new fossil from the upper Ypresian Stage of the early Eocene found in Monte Bolca, Italy was described as a new species, Eophryne barbuttii, and is the oldest known member of the family.