Leiognathid fi shes were collected during several series of trawl surveys carried out in the coastal waters of the South China Sea on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia. Taxonomic revision for leiognathid fi shes is probably needed because diagnostic characters have been described without a broad comparison among existing species, resulting in nomenclatural problems. The phylogenetic relationship among 14 morphospecies of leiognathid fi shes were inferred from 16S mitochondrial rRNA gene sequences. The results showed that molecular phylogenetic positions of the fi shes agreed well with morphological delineation. The only exception was Leiognathus sp. “Philippines” AY541655 that was more closely affi liated to Nuchequula spp. than to other Leiognathus spp. Neighbor-joining analysis suggested that the genus Leiognathus is paraphyletic, whereas Gazza, Secutor, Photoplagios, Photopectoralis and Nuchequula are monophyletic. Leiognathus equulus and Leiognathus longispinis formed the base of the other clades. Leiognathus daura formed a sister group to Nuchequula species. Leiognathus splendens and Leiognathus jonesi formed sister taxa to Photopectoralis. Gazza was a sister group to Secutor but with low confi dence value. Photoplagios and Secutor both formed two distinct subclades. It is suggested that analysis of 16S mitochondrial rDNA would be highly valuable to resolve some of the outstanding taxonomic problems in the family Leiognathidae