How are scorpaeniform fishes related to perciform fishes?

Scorpaeniform fishes are closely related to perciform fishes, and their evolutionary connection is so significant that some authorities classify the scorpaeniform group as a suborder within the Perciformes.1

Both orders are members of the superorder Acanthopterygii, which encompasses spiny-finned fishes. While scorpaeniforms are distinguished by a specific anatomical feature—a plate of bone running across each cheek formed by the union of the second infraorbital bone with the preopercular—they share a general evolutionary proximity to perciforms.213

The classification of these fishes remains a subject of ongoing study, as some ichthyologists suggest that scorpaeniforms may represent an aggregation of distinct evolutionary lines rather than a single lineage. Despite these complexities in systematic placement, their morphological and biological affinities with perciforms are widely recognized in ichthyology.21