A phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of cyprinodontiform fishes (Teleostei, Atherinomorpha). Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 168, article 4
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Abstract
"The cyprinodontiforms, or killifishes, are a large and diverse group of 900 fresh- and brackish-water species with a pantropical and temperate Laurasian distribution. Traditionally, it has been classified in five families: the worldwide, oviparous Cyprinodontidae, and four New World viviparous families: the Poeciliidae, Anablepidae, Jenynsiidae, and Goodeidae. Fishes of the diverse Cyprinodontidae, in turn, have been divided into as many as eight subfamilies. The objectives of the present study are to: (1) determine if the cyprinodontiform fishes as a whole form a monophyletic group; (2) determine if each of the five families is monophyletic; (3) define the major subgroups of cyprinodontiforms, concentrating on the genera of the Cyprinodontidae; (4) determine the interrelationships of the subgroups; (5) present a comprehensive classification of the cyprinodontiforms that reflects the interrelationships; and (6) provide a hypothesis for the distribution of the group. The following general results were obtained by using the methods of phylogenetic systematics and vicariance biogeography: (1) the cyprinodontiforms are considered to be monophyletic by their sharing derived characters of the caudal skeleton, upper jaw, gill arches, position of the first pleural rib, pectoral girdle, and aspects of breeding and development; (2) the family Cyprinodontidae is nonmonophyletic as it contains some of the most primitive and derived cyprinodontiforms; (3) each of the four viviparous families is monophyletic; however, their previous definitions in terms of uniquely derived characters have been altered; (4) the development of an annual habit, exhibited by members of the aplocheiloid killifishes and possibly some cyprinodontoids, includes derived reproductive traits exhibited to some degree by all killifishes; therefore, the annual habit does not define a monophyletic group of killifishes; (5) similarly, viviparity is not hypothesized to be a uniquely derived character, but has apparently arisen at least three times within the group; and (6) the interrelationships of cyprinodontiforms correspond, in part, with a pattern of the break-up of Pangea, except for an Andean-Eurasian sister group pair. A scheme of interrelationships of cyprinodontiforms as well as of monophyletic subgroups is presented in the form of cladograms, of which the former is transformed into a comprehensive classification of the group. The fishes under study are recognized as comprising the order Cyprinodontiformes Berg and divided into two suborders, the Aplocheiloidei (which previously comprised, in part, the Cyprinodontidae), and the Cyprinodontoidei (comprising all other cyprinodontiforms as well as the four viviparous families). In order to minimize the number of named empty categories, a numbering system is incorporated into a traditional naming system to create the new classification"--P. [341].
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--City University of New York.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 547-557).