Pterygotioidea (the name deriving from the type genus Pterygotus, meaning "winged one") is a superfamily of eurypterids, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Pterygotioids were the most derived members of the infraorder Diploperculata and the sister group of the adelophthalmoid eurypterids. The group includes the basal and small hughmilleriids, the larger and specialized slimonids and the famous pterygotids which were equipped with robust and powerful cheliceral claws.

Though the more primitive hughmilleriids were small, Hughmilleria wangi being the smallest of all pterygotioids at just 6 centimetres (2.4 in) in length, later members of the group, particularly in the Pterygotidae, would become the largest known arthropods to ever exist with several genera surpassing 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length.

Among all currently recognized eurypterid clades, the Pterygotioidea is the most diverse, containing over 50 species in 10 genera. With the number of recognized eurypterid species being around 250, pterygotioids account for more than a fifth of all known eurypterid species. Though the group only existed for around 70 million years and during a time when most continents were separated by large expanses of water (in contrast with previous and later periods of time when there had been supercontinents), the Pterygotioidea had the most cosmopolitan distribution of all eurypterid groups. Their fossils have been recovered from Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Asia and Australia, with the earliest remains being from the Early Silurian of Scotland and South China. The exact geographical origin of the group remains unknown, but is thought to have been in Laurentia.

Though several characteristic and diagnostic traits can be established for each of the families included within the Pterygotioidea, the group as a whole is primarily joined by the shared features of marginal eyes, that their compound eyes are placed near or on the margin of the carapace (the "head" plate).

Pterygotioid eurypterids, whose fossils are recovered in deposits ranging in age from the Early Silurian to the Late Devonian, can be distinguished from all other eurypterine eurypterids by the placement of their eyes, being located near or in some cases on the margin of the carapace (the "head" plate). Pterygotioids ranged in size from small eurypterids, the smallest being Hughmilleria wangi at just 6 centimetres (2.4 in) in length, to the largest arthropods to ever live, the largest being Jaekelopterus rhenaniae which might have reached lengths of 2.6 metres (8.5 ft).

Like all other chelicerates, and other arthropods in general, pterygotioid eurypterids possessed segmented bodies and jointed appendages (limbs) covered in a cuticle composed of proteins and chitin. In the Pterygotidae, the outer surface of the exoskeleton was covered in a scale-like ornamentation but it was smooth within Slimonidae and Hughmilleriidae.

The chelicerate body is divided into two tagmata (sections); the frontal prosoma (head) and posterior opisthosoma (abdomen). The appendages were attached to the prosoma, and were characterized in pterygotids and slimonids by being small and slender and lacking spines. In contrast, the more basal Hughmilleriids did possess spines on their appendages.

In derived members of the group, Slimonidae and Pterygotidae, the telson (the posteriormost segment of the body) was expanded and flattened, often with a spike protruding from its end. The telsons of the Hughmilleriidae were not flattened, instead being lanceolate (in the shape of a lance or spike) and similar to those of more primitive eurypterids such as Eurypterus.