The parrotfishes are a large and colorful group of coral reef fishes that are known to form a subgroup of the
clade traditionally treated as the family Labridae, a phylogenetic position based on strong evidence from both
morphological and molecular data (Gomon, 1997; Westneat & Alfaro, 2005). Despite increasing resolution of
the position of parrotfishes within labrids, a formal revision of the classification of the Labridae and its component
groups has not been recently proposed, in part because of the high level of research activity on phylogenetics
of the group and the desire to have stability to the classification once it is revised. Thus, for the
purposes of stability of nomenclature, we retain the family status of the Scaridae here and defer the discussion
of classification reflecting phylogeny to larger taxonomic and phylogenetic studies.