The sparid fishes are one of the most economically important marine fishes in the world.However,the classification and phylogeny of Sparidae have been long confused due to the high diversity of morphological characters.The present paper deals with the comparative osteology in eight species pertaining to five genera of Sparidae collected from Chinese coastal waters by conventional method.The results indicate that the family Sparidae is divided into two groups on the basis of the comparative anatomy and morphology of urohyoid,premaxilla,mesethmoid,sphenotic,circumorbital series and palatinum.The two genera Rhabdosargus and Acanthopagrus are grouped in one clade,and the three genera Pagrus,Evynnis and Dentex are grouped in another clade.There is a subtle difference between Pagrus and Evynnis in the characters including number and patterns of molariform teeth on both jaws,the third circumorblital,the palatinum and opisthotic.There are no obvious differences in osteological characters between P.auratus and P.major.The present results suggest that these two species,P.auratus and P.major,did not show enough morphological divergences to be classified as different species.We support partly the findings of Paulin that these two species should be treated as a single species named P.auratus,because P.auratus is the senior synonym of P.major.Similarly,the present results also suggest that the relationship between A.schlegelii schlegelii and A.schlegelii czerskii is at the level of a single species named A.schlegelii.These characters of skeletons can be used as important basis for identifying genera or species.