Snakehead fishes (family Channidae) are represented by two extant genera, Channa, in Asia, and Parachanna, in Africa. Both genera are known from Eocene fossils in their respective continents. A phylogenetic analysis using osteological characters for the fossil taxa and numerous extant species indicates that the two genera are reciprocally monophyletic and endemic to each land mass. Because channids are restricted to fresh waters, their presence in Africa and Asia in the Eocene, when these two landmasses were not connected by terrestrial routes, indicates they must have either evolved prior to the separation of continents and the lineage is extremely old for a percomorph, which is unlikely, or that an alternate route was present betweenAfrica and Asia during the Eocene or earlier. Since migration between Asia and Africa through Europe would have been blocked by the Tethys Sea until the Miocene, an island arc facilitating migration is proposed. This supports previous suggestions of an Early Cenozoic connection between Africa and Asia.