U. limi ranges throughout the Great Lakes region and Mississippi River basin of North America.

are most commonly found in the Atlantic coast regions of North America, along the marshy, low-oxygen areas of the Mississippi River, and in similar environments in Europe.

[citation needed] The extant species of Umbridae are sight-based ambush predators, with umbrids occupying the niche of a bottom-feeding generalist.

A single species has been assigned to the genus Proumbra, which was recovered in fossil beds dating to the late Oligocene.

[7] Genetic work has reported that separation of the European and North American species in the genus Umbra occurred roughly at the end of the Late Cretaceous and earliest half of the Paleogene, at the date of 60.57 million years ago with the 95% highest probability density of 39.57-81.75.

This trait may have been present in the last common ancestor of Esocidae before the umbrid/esocid split, and is lost today in Umbra, Dallia, and Novumbra.