[1][2][3] The earliest fossil argentiniform remains are otoliths of indeterminate argentinids from the Barremian Kimigahama Formation of Japan.

[4] Later otoliths are known of other indeterminate taxa and Argentina itself from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of the United States and Germany.

[5][6][7] A fossil family that might belong in this order are the Pattersonellidae, but more recent studies have found them to be basal euteleosts.

This consists of the additional cartilage and gill rakers on the fifth ceratobranchial, which is found in other teleosts, too, but not as well-developed as in the present order.

[2][3] The treatment of the Argentiniformes as distinct order follows the discovery that they are by no means as closely related to the Osmeriformes as was long believed.