The Lophiiformes has traditionally been allied with the order Batrachoidiformes. Regan (1912) initially believed these two groups to be so closely related that he included them as suborders of an order he called the "Pediculati." At that time Regan (1912:278) wrote: "The Batrachoidea are here included in the Pediculati rather than in the Percomorphi, for it can hardly be the case that the resemblance in osteological characters, especially in the structure of the pectoral arch, is not due to real affinity." But later Regan (1926:3) separated the Lophiiformes from the Batrachoidiformes, stating that "although the resemblances in the pectoral arch may be due to relationship, the differences in other characters are sufficient to keep them apart."

Since that time, Regan's (1926) revised opinion has been almost universally accepted. The more significant studies that reach this conclusion being those of Regan and Trewavas (1932), Gregory (1933), Gregory and Conrad (1936), Gregory (1951), Eaton et al. (1954), and Monod (1960). Greenwood et al. (1966) and Rosen and Patterson (1969) also agreed, summarizing the available supporting evidence and proposing further a close phylogenetic relationship between these two orders and the Gobiesociformes, these three taxa forming a so-called "Batrachoidiform Lineage" of the Paracanthopterygii. Since the publication of these two papers, Gosline (1970), in a long and detailed paper, removed the order Gobiesociformes from this lineage (and from the Paracanthopterygii), and recognized it, together with the Callionymidae and Draconettidae, as an order of perciform derivation. Without comment or new evidence, Lauder and Liem (1983) reversed Gosline's (1970) decision by reconstituting the "Batrachoidiform Lineage" as originally proposed by Rosen and Patterson (1969). Following Gosline (1970) in excluding the Gobiesociformes, Patterson and Rosen (1989: 24) once again reviewed all the available evidence and identified several new and significant characters in the anterior vertebrae and gill-arch skeleton. Of the batrachoidiforms and lophiiforms, they concluded that "the latter are surely monophyletic, the former less so, but if so, the two are sister groups."