Pteridaceae is a family of ferns in the order Polypodiales,[2] including some 1150 known species in ca 45 genera[3] (depending on taxonomic opinions), divided over five subfamilies.

Relationships among these groups remain unclear, and although some recent genetic analyses of the Pteridales suggest that neither the family Pteridaceae nor the major groups within it are all monophyletic, as yet these analyses are insufficiently comprehensive and robust to provide good support for a revision of the order at the family level.

[11] These roughly correspond with the groups listed above, with the main difference being that adiantoid and vittarioid ferns are combined under the Vittarioideae subfamily name.

[2] Smith et al. (2006) carried out the first higher-level pteridophyte classification published in the molecular phylogenetic era.

The phylogenetic relationship between these six suborders is shown in this cladogram:[2] Saccolomatineae Lindsaeineae Pteridiineae Dennstaedtiineae Aspleniineae Polypodiineae The oldest fossil of the family is Heinrichsia from the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) aged Burmese amber of Myanmar, which cannot be assigned to modern grouping of the family.