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Osteology and relationships of the southern freshwater lower euteleostean fishes
Citation
McDowall, RM and Burridge, CP, Osteology and relationships of the southern freshwater lower euteleostean fishes, Zoosystematics and Evolution , 87, (1) pp. 7-185. ISSN 1860-0743 (2011) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
The definitive published version is available online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Official URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
DOI: doi:10.1002/zoos.201000020
Abstract
Temperate lands of the Southern Hemisphere have freshwater f ish faunas that are
dominated by a series of lower euteleostean genera that seem to fall into three clusters:
1) Retropinna, Stokellia and Prototroctes, forming a family Retropinnidae; 2) Aplochi-
ton, Lovettia, Galaxias, Neochanna, Brachygalaxias, Paragalaxias and Galaxiella in-
cluded in either a single family Galaxiidae or split between Galaxiidae and Aplochito-
nidae (the latter including Lovettia); and 3) Lepidogalaxias. Although the generic
classif ication seems relatively well-settled, the familial allocations and phylogenetic
relationships among these three groups of genera have been much discussed in recent
decades, dating back into the 1960s. There is wide agreement that Retropinna, Stokel-
lia, and Prototroctes are closely related to each other; that the other genera apart from
Lepidogalaxias are also closely related to each other and well separated from the ret-
ropinnids; but what Lepidogalaxias is related to has been a subject of considerable
debate and highly divergent phylogenetic hypotheses for many years. Our study pre-
sents extensive mor phological information, mostly osteological, that seeks to clarify all
of these relationships. Using the Northern Hemisphere Osmeridae as the principal out-
group, our data support the historical relationships discussed above, for all but Lepido-
galaxias, though we also suggest that Aplochiton and Lovettia are quite deeply sepa-
rated from the galaxiid genera. Our conclusions relating to Lepidogalaxias are highly
equivocal, given the large numbers of autapomor phic characters in the analysis and
the lack of convincing synapomor phies shared by that genus and other southern lower
euteleosteans, we conclude that Lepidogalaxias is deeply separated from the other
southern genera. Incor porating additional molecular information, we conclude that Le-
pidogalaxias is possibly the sister group of all other euteleostean f ishes, a conclusion
that also emerges more explicitly from other, recent molecular studies of this highly
controversial taxon. It has so many distinctive mor phological characters that it seems
diff icult, if not impossible, to identify its relationships from osteology alone, though
the extent of autapomor phy may result in part from our use of Osmeridae as the prin-
cipal outgroup. Further studies comparing Lepidogalaxias with other outgroups, or per-
haps the use of other types of mor phological characters, may reveal more of its rela-
tionships.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
---|---|
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Evolutionary biology |
Research Field: | Animal systematics and taxonomy |
Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
Objective Group: | Fresh, ground and surface water systems and management |
Objective Field: | Fresh, ground and surface water biodiversity |
UTAS Author: | Burridge, CP (Associate Professor Christopher Burridge) |
ID Code: | 68809 |
Year Published: | 2011 |
Deposited By: | Zoology |
Deposited On: | 2011-03-24 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-01 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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