en Genetics Genetics پژوهشي Orginal research papers Asteroidae, or starfish, is one of the classes of phylum Echinodermata that its phylogenetic relationships have not been studied in the Persian Gulf so far. In this research, the morphological identification, molecular analysis and phylogeny of 40 asteroid samples were studied from the northern islands of the Persian Gulf. For this purpose, starfish samples were identified using morphological characteristics. The molecular identification was performed based on two fragments of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and mt 16S rRNA. The phylogenetic relationships of asteroids were analyzed using maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony and Bayesian methods. &nbsp;Eleven species of starfishes belonging to 6 genera as well as 5 families have been identified including <em>Luidia hardwicki, Astropecten hemprichi, Astropecten indicus, Astropecten polyacanthus</em> <em>phragmorus, Astropecten polyacanthus</em> <em>polyacanthus,</em> of <em>Culcita</em> <em>novaeguineae,</em><em> Pentaceraster mammillatus</em>, <em>Linckia laevigata</em>, <em>Linckia</em> <em>multifora,</em> <em>Aquilonastra iranica </em>and <em>Aquilonastra watersi</em>. Since the species of <em>Linckia laevigata </em>(orange-green morph) and a specimen of <em>Astropecten polyacanthus</em> <em>polyacanthus</em> have been identified based on molecular analysis, this technique can be a useful tool in asteroids along with morphological studies. The obtained interspecies distances in genera <em>Luidia</em> and <em>Astropecten</em> suggest cryptic speciation might have occurred in these genera. The results of Asteroidae classifications at the genus and family levels indicated phylogenetic tree of mt 16S rRNA gene based on Bayesian method is consistent with previous morphological taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses. mt 16S rRNA, Cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), Asteroidae, Persian Gulf 3034 3049 http://jifro.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1886-3&slc_lang=en&sid=1 B. Adeli behjat.adeli@yahoo.com 100319475328460038353 100319475328460038353 No Department of Marine Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University P. Ghavam Mostafavi mostafavi_pa@srbiau.ac.ir 100319475328460038354 100319475328460038354 Yes Department of Marine Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University M.R. Fatemi reza.fatemi@hotmail 100319475328460038355 100319475328460038355 No Department of Marine Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University