see text Ogcocephalidae is a family of anglerfish specifically adapted for a benthic lifestyle of crawling about on the seafloor.

[6] Charles Tate Regan placed this family within the division Antennariformes within his suborder Lophiodea when he classified the order Pediculati, his grouping of the toadfishes and anglerfishes.

He, tentatively, retained both groups within the Antennarioidei even although he was unable to establish the monophyly of the four families Regan classified in the Antennariiformes in 1912.

[1] Ogcocephalidae contains the following genera:[10] Ogcocephaloidei batfishes are dorsoventrally compressed fishes similar in appearance to rays, with a large circular or triangular head (box-shaped in Coelophrys), and a small tail.

The flattened head and body of these fishes is often referred to as the "disc" and is made up of the head and the body as far as the axilla of the pelvic fins, the forward edge of the disc is made up of the extended bones of the operculum sweeping backwards from the cranium and surrounding the trunk on either side.

The illicium (a modified dorsal fin ray on the front of the head supporting the esca, a bulbous lure) may be retracted into an illicial cavity above the mouth.

[13] These tubercles can be tiny and have long terminal spines, these create the impression that these fishes have a covering of coarse hair.