The scaled sculpin genus, Icelus was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1845 by the Danish zoologist Henrik Nikolai Krøyer when he described Icelus hamatus as a new species from Belsund in Spitsbergen.

[1][2] L. hamatus has since been determined to be synonym of Cottus bicornis, which had been described by Johan Reinhardt in 1840 from East Greenland.

[2] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies the genus Artediellus within the subfamily Cottinae of the family Cottidae,[3] however, other authors classify the genus within the subfamily Icelinae of the family Psychrolutidae.

[7] These fishes vary in size from the smallest, I. sekii, with a maximum published standard length of 5.3 cm (2.1 in), to the largest, I. cataphractus, which has a maximum published total length of 30 cm (12 in).

[6] Scaled sculpins are mainly Pacific species, 16 of the 18 species being found in the North Pacific Ocean, with 2 species, the twohorn sculpin (I. bicornis) and the spatulate sculpin (I. spatula) being found in the Atlantic Ocean, the latter also being found in the Arctic Ocean.