Resolving the Ray-Finned Fish Tree of Life COMMENTARY Michael E

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Resolving the Ray-Finned Fish Tree of Life COMMENTARY Michael E COMMENTARY Resolving the ray-finned fish tree of life COMMENTARY Michael E. Alfaroa,1 The Challenge of Reconstructing Fish Phylogeny responsible for generating the trees in the first place When it comes to vertebrate evolutionary history, has emerged. In PNAS, Hughes et al. (12), use over our understanding of lobe-finned fishes—the branch 1,000 new markers using phylogenomic and tran- of the vertebrate tree leading to coelacanths plus scriptomic techniques to reconstruct the evolutionary the tetrapods (amphibians, turtles, birds, crocodiles, history of ray-finned fishes. Hughes et al.’s phylogeny lizards, snakes, and mammals)—far outstrips our reveals many key features of the backbone of the ray- knowledge of ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii). Acti- finned fish tree of life and provides the most com- nopterygians exhibit extraordinary species richness prehensive evolutionary framework to date for this (>33,000 described species) and have evolved a stag- major radiation of vertebrates. gering diversity in morphology and ecology over their Phylogenomics has revolutionized evolutionary 400+ million y history. Ray-finned fishes include some reconstruction by vastly expanding both the number of the smallest vertebrates [the adult cyprinid Paedo- of loci that can be interrogated across nonmodel or- cypris progenetica measure just under 8 mm (1)], some ganisms, as well as the efficiency with which the data of the largest (adult ocean sunfish weigh more than may be collected (13). The most recent multilocus 2,000 kg), some of the longest (oarfishes may reach a studies that underlie our current understanding of the length of more than 13 m), some of the longest lived ray-finned fish tree of life are based upon 10– [rougheye rockfishes, Sebastes aleutianus, may live for 20 markers (e.g., refs. 9 and 11). These studies rep- more than 200 y (2)], and some of the shortest lived [the resent the culmination of decades of effort to identify coral reef pygmy goby, Eviota sigillata, has a maximum genes with reasonable phylogenetic performance, as lifespan of 59 d (3)]. In marine waters, ray-finned fishes well as the laborious effort to amplify and sequence include the tremendously diverse and ecologically rich each marker for each species (14). In contrast, modern coral reef fish families, such as wrasses, angelfishes, genome sequencing and transcriptomics enable butterfly fishes, and damselfishes, and they comprise rapid and cost-effective collection of genome-scale most important commercial and recreational fishing data for any species, shifting the challenge of phylo- stocks. Within freshwaters, ray-finned fishes have genetic analysis from intensive laboratory work to produced several ecologically dominant radiations, identifying the markers that are most appropriate for including cyprinids, characiforms, catfishes, and cichlids. the questions at hand. Efforts to reconstruct the phylogenetic history of this Hughes et al. (12) introduce a pipeline that expands group have proven extremely challenging (4, 5), especially the genomic resources for phylogenetic inference in within acanthomorphs (6, 7), a hyperdiverse subclade fishes by identifying and extracting 1,105 protein comprising almost two-thirds of all ray-finned fish species. coding genes from genomic alignments. Inferring the One of the major impediments to understanding ray-finned fish tree of life using phylogenomic data is higher-level ray-finned fish relationships has been the potentially confounded by two episodes of genomic lack of obvious morphological characters that unite expansion in the history of the group (15, 16): one at major lineages (reviewed in ref. 8). Within the last 5 y, the base of all vertebrates and the second at the base large-scale multilocus sequencing efforts have pro- of all teleost fishes (a group comprising over 99% of ray- duced novel insights in the ray-finned fish backbone finned fish species). Hughes et al. (12) show that naive phylogeny, including unexpectedly close relation- phylogenomic pipelines will likely recover a significant ships among morphologically disparate lineages (9– number of paralogs that in turn may mislead evolu- 11). Testing these new hypotheses is critical for un- tionary inferences at the tree-of-life scale. By filtering derstanding vertebrate evolutionary history, yet little out gene trees that fail to recover the monophyly evidence beyond the original set of nuclear markers of three major fish groups that emerged following aDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 Author contributions: M.E.A. wrote the paper. The author declares no conflict of interest. Published under the PNAS license. See companion article on page 6249. 1Email: [email protected]. Published online May 30, 2018. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1807018115 PNAS | June 12, 2018 | vol. 115 | no. 24 | 6107–6109 Downloaded by guest on September 24, 2021 genomic expansion events (teleosts, euteleosts, and ostar- prior divergence-time studies show that this massive radiation iophysans), Hughes et al. arrive at a final marker set for their unfolded largely over the Late Cretaceous and some have dub- analyses with maximal power to accurately reconstruct actino- bed this period the “Second Age of Fishes” (9). However, some pterygian evolutionary history. fossil and phylogenomic studies implicate the mass extinction and recovery at the K-Pg (Cretaceous–Paleogene) boundary as major Can More Markers Help Resolve Controversial Nodes and forces that restructured marine fish communities (22) and fueled Questions About the Timing of Diversification? the rise of percomorphs (23, 24). Hughes et al. (12) show that the The growth of molecular phylogenetics has led to conflicting diversification within major percomorph groups predates the K–Pg perspectives on the evolutionary relationships among several of boundary. the most distinctive lineages on the ray-finned fish tree of life. The branching arrangement of the base of the teleost tree is one such ’ area of conflict, with morphological studies generally supporting Hughes et al. s phylogeny reveals many key the elopomorphs (eels and tarpon) and osteoglossomorphs (bony features of the backbone of the ray-finned fish tongues) as successive sister lineages to remaining teleosts (4). tree of life and provides the most comprehen- This result is recovered by some multilocus (11, 17) and phylo- genomic studies (18), while others support a sister group re- sive evolutionary framework to date for this lationship between elopomorphs and osteoglossomorphs (18). major radiation of vertebrates. The arrangement of the otophysans (a species-rich clade con- taining more than two-thirds of the world’s freshwater species, The underlying causes for the discrepancy in divergence times including characins, knifefishes, minnows, and catfishes), remains estimated by these studies is not immediately clear and could highly controversial, as morphological studies unambiguously reflect differences in the rates of evolution between coding and recover the monophyly of the characiformes (19), while molecular noncoding phylogenomic markers, differences in the treatment of studies generally render this group paraphyletic with respect to fossil constrained nodes, or differences in taxonomic sampling. other otophysan lineages (20; but see ref. 21). Hughes et al. (12) However, resolution of the timing of percomorph diversification is investigate the strength of support across the genome for alter- critical to evaluating explanations for the evolutionary success of native resolutions of contentious nodes through a recently de- the groups. If the modern percomorph fauna can be linked to veloped statistical pipeline (21). The authors (12) show that for at postextinction recovery, then the mass extinction at the K–Pg was least some controversial nodes, including teleosts and otophy- key to shaping diversity across major groups of both terrestrial and sans, conflict between morphological and molecular results ap- aquatic groups today. Alternatively, if diversification happened pears to be driven by noise in some gene partitions. When only over a broader window of time that predates the mass extinction, markers with strong phylogenetic signal are considered, the fa- percomorph diversity may be better understood as a conse- vored molecular and morphological topologies are the same. quence of lineage-specific factors relating to the ecological flex- Their analysis underscores the need to consider both the strength ibility of the group as a whole (9). of support for novel phylogenetic results and the distribution of The success of multilocus studies substantially improved the that support across gene partitions in the analysis of massive next- prospects of resolving higher-level relationships among ray- generation datasets. finned fishes. In PNAS, Hughes et al. (12) deliver a significant Another vexing phylogenetic problem in vertebrate evolu- advance on this front. Their phylogeny, the most robustly sup- tionary biology concerns the percomorphs, the largest acantho- morph subclade, with over 17,000 species. Recent multilocus ported hypothesis of relationship of ray-finned fishes to date, studies (8, 11) resolve the astonishing richness of this group into provides a stable framework for understanding actinopterygian nine major lineages, including Gobiaria (gobies), Pelagiaria evolutionary history as well as a road-map for fleshing-out re- ∼ (tunas), Syngnatharia (seahorses and pipefishes), Carangaria (jacks
Recommended publications
  • Phylogeny of the Damselfishes (Pomacentridae) and Patterns of Asymmetrical Diversification in Body Size and Feeding Ecology
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.07.430149; this version posted February 8, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Phylogeny of the damselfishes (Pomacentridae) and patterns of asymmetrical diversification in body size and feeding ecology Charlene L. McCord a, W. James Cooper b, Chloe M. Nash c, d & Mark W. Westneat c, d a California State University Dominguez Hills, College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, 1000 E. Victoria Street, Carson, CA 90747 b Western Washington University, Department of Biology and Program in Marine and Coastal Science, 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA 98225 c University of Chicago, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, and Committee on Evolutionary Biology, 1027 E. 57th St, Chicago IL, 60637, USA d Field Museum of Natural History, Division of Fishes, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605 Corresponding author: Mark W. Westneat [email protected] Journal: PLoS One Keywords: Pomacentridae, phylogenetics, body size, diversification, evolution, ecotype Abstract The damselfishes (family Pomacentridae) inhabit near-shore communities in tropical and temperature oceans as one of the major lineages with ecological and economic importance for coral reef fish assemblages. Our understanding of their evolutionary ecology, morphology and function has often been advanced by increasingly detailed and accurate molecular phylogenies. Here we present the next stage of multi-locus, molecular phylogenetics for the group based on analysis of 12 nuclear and mitochondrial gene sequences from 330 of the 422 damselfish species.
    [Show full text]
  • An Overview of the Dwarfgobies, the Second Most Speciose Coral-Reef Fish Genus (Teleostei: Gobiidae:Eviota )
    An overview of the dwarfgobies, the second most speciose coral-reef fish genus (Teleostei: Gobiidae:Eviota ) DAVID W. GREENFIELD Research Associate, Department of Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Dr., Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California 94118-4503, USA Professor Emeritus, University of Hawai‘i Mailing address: 944 Egan Ave., Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract An overview of the dwarfgobies in the genus Eviota is presented. Background information is provided on the taxonomic history, systematics, reproduction, ecology, geographic distribution, genetic studies, and speciation of dwarfgobies. Future research directions are discussed. A list of all valid species to date is included, as well as tables with species included in various cephalic sensory-canal pore groupings. Key words: review, taxonomy, systematics, ichthyology, ecology, behavior, reproduction, evolution, coloration, Indo-Pacific Ocean, gobies. Citation: Greenfield, D.W. (2017) An overview of the dwarfgobies, the second most speciose coral-reef fish genus (Teleostei: Gobiidae: Eviota). Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 29, 32–54. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1115683 Introduction The gobiid genus Eviota, known as dwarfgobies, is a very speciose genus of teleost fishes, with 113 valid described species occurring throughout the Indo-Pacific Ocean (Table 1), and many more awaiting description. It is the fifth most speciose saltwater teleost genus, and second only to the 129 species in the eel genusGymnothorax in the coral-reef ecosystem (Eschmeyer et al. 2017). Information on the systematics and biology of the species of the genus is scattered in the literature, often in obscure references, and, other than the taxonomic key to all the species in the genus (Greenfield & Winterbottom 2016), no recent overview of the genus exists.
    [Show full text]
  • Reef Fishes of the Bird's Head Peninsula, West
    Check List 5(3): 587–628, 2009. ISSN: 1809-127X LISTS OF SPECIES Reef fishes of the Bird’s Head Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia Gerald R. Allen 1 Mark V. Erdmann 2 1 Department of Aquatic Zoology, Western Australian Museum. Locked Bag 49, Welshpool DC, Perth, Western Australia 6986. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Conservation International Indonesia Marine Program. Jl. Dr. Muwardi No. 17, Renon, Denpasar 80235 Indonesia. Abstract A checklist of shallow (to 60 m depth) reef fishes is provided for the Bird’s Head Peninsula region of West Papua, Indonesia. The area, which occupies the extreme western end of New Guinea, contains the world’s most diverse assemblage of coral reef fishes. The current checklist, which includes both historical records and recent survey results, includes 1,511 species in 451 genera and 111 families. Respective species totals for the three main coral reef areas – Raja Ampat Islands, Fakfak-Kaimana coast, and Cenderawasih Bay – are 1320, 995, and 877. In addition to its extraordinary species diversity, the region exhibits a remarkable level of endemism considering its relatively small area. A total of 26 species in 14 families are currently considered to be confined to the region. Introduction and finally a complex geologic past highlighted The region consisting of eastern Indonesia, East by shifting island arcs, oceanic plate collisions, Timor, Sabah, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and widely fluctuating sea levels (Polhemus and the Solomon Islands is the global centre of 2007). reef fish diversity (Allen 2008). Approximately 2,460 species or 60 percent of the entire reef fish The Bird’s Head Peninsula and surrounding fauna of the Indo-West Pacific inhabits this waters has attracted the attention of naturalists and region, which is commonly referred to as the scientists ever since it was first visited by Coral Triangle (CT).
    [Show full text]
  • Shortest Recorded Vertebrate Lifespan Found in a Coral Reef Fish
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Current Biology Vol 15 No 8 R288 monkeyflowers and other taxa are just 35 days, of which at least 10 helping to overcome this gap. Correspondence are taken to reach sexual maturity The ‘bottom up’ or genetic (Figure 1B). This provides the approach to studying speciation species with a remarkable three- has hunted down genes Shortest recorded week window in which to responsible for premating and reproduce and contribute to the postmating isolation, and then vertebrate next generation. shown that the gene sequences lifespan found in a Already constrained by time, the exhibit signatures of recent lifetime fecundity of E. sigillata is selection. But this approach has coral reef fish further restricted by small adult told us little about the nature of body sizes of 11–20 mm, limiting that selection. Is selection the number of eggs a female can divergent or has divergence Martial Depczynski and produce. Yet pygmy gobies are an occurred under uniform selection? David R. Bellwood incredibly successful group, Was selection in response to numbering some 70 species with environmental differences? Was it Extreme short lifespans are of a geographic distribution natural or sexual selection? interest because they mark encompassing reefs across the Finally, we still know little about current evolutionary boundaries Indian and Pacific Oceans [1]. To how mate preferences evolve and biological limits within which investigate lifetime fecundity, we within and between populations life’s essential tasks must be bred pygmy gobies in captivity. during the process of speciation.
    [Show full text]
  • Taxonomic Research of the Gobioid Fishes (Perciformes: Gobioidei) in China
    KOREAN JOURNAL OF ICHTHYOLOGY, Vol. 21 Supplement, 63-72, July 2009 Received : April 17, 2009 ISSN: 1225-8598 Revised : June 15, 2009 Accepted : July 13, 2009 Taxonomic Research of the Gobioid Fishes (Perciformes: Gobioidei) in China By Han-Lin Wu, Jun-Sheng Zhong1,* and I-Shiung Chen2 Ichthyological Laboratory, Shanghai Ocean University, 999 Hucheng Ring Rd., 201306 Shanghai, China 1Ichthyological Laboratory, Shanghai Ocean University, 999 Hucheng Ring Rd., 201306 Shanghai, China 2Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 202, Taiwan ABSTRACT The taxonomic research based on extensive investigations and specimen collections throughout all varieties of freshwater and marine habitats of Chinese waters, including mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which involved accounting the vast number of collected specimens, data and literature (both within and outside China) were carried out over the last 40 years. There are totally 361 recorded species of gobioid fishes belonging to 113 genera, 5 subfamilies, and 9 families. This gobioid fauna of China comprises 16.2% of 2211 known living gobioid species of the world. This report repre- sents a summary of previous researches on the suborder Gobioidei. A recently diagnosed subfamily, Polyspondylogobiinae, were assigned from the type genus and type species: Polyspondylogobius sinen- sis Kimura & Wu, 1994 which collected around the Pearl River Delta with high extremity of vertebral count up to 52-54. The undated comprehensive checklist of gobioid fishes in China will be provided in this paper. Key words : Gobioid fish, fish taxonomy, species checklist, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan INTRODUCTION benthic perciforms: gobioid fishes to evolve and active- ly radiate. The fishes of suborder Gobioidei belong to the largest The gobioid fishes in China have long received little group of those in present living Perciformes.
    [Show full text]
  • Resolving Cypriniformes Relationships Using an Anchored Enrichment Approach Carla C
    Stout et al. BMC Evolutionary Biology (2016) 16:244 DOI 10.1186/s12862-016-0819-5 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Resolving Cypriniformes relationships using an anchored enrichment approach Carla C. Stout1*†, Milton Tan1†, Alan R. Lemmon2, Emily Moriarty Lemmon3 and Jonathan W. Armbruster1 Abstract Background: Cypriniformes (minnows, carps, loaches, and suckers) is the largest group of freshwater fishes in the world (~4300 described species). Despite much attention, previous attempts to elucidate relationships using molecular and morphological characters have been incongruent. In this study we present the first phylogenomic analysis using anchored hybrid enrichment for 172 taxa to represent the order (plus three out-group taxa), which is the largest dataset for the order to date (219 loci, 315,288 bp, average locus length of 1011 bp). Results: Concatenation analysis establishes a robust tree with 97 % of nodes at 100 % bootstrap support. Species tree analysis was highly congruent with the concatenation analysis with only two major differences: monophyly of Cobitoidei and placement of Danionidae. Conclusions: Most major clades obtained in prior molecular studies were validated as monophyletic, and we provide robust resolution for the relationships among these clades for the first time. These relationships can be used as a framework for addressing a variety of evolutionary questions (e.g. phylogeography, polyploidization, diversification, trait evolution, comparative genomics) for which Cypriniformes is ideally suited. Keywords: Fish, High-throughput
    [Show full text]
  • Patterns of Evolution in Gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae): a Multi-Scale Phylogenetic Investigation
    PATTERNS OF EVOLUTION IN GOBIES (TELEOSTEI: GOBIIDAE): A MULTI-SCALE PHYLOGENETIC INVESTIGATION A Dissertation by LUKE MICHAEL TORNABENE BS, Hofstra University, 2007 MS, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, 2010 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in MARINE BIOLOGY Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Corpus Christi, Texas December 2014 © Luke Michael Tornabene All Rights Reserved December 2014 PATTERNS OF EVOLUTION IN GOBIES (TELEOSTEI: GOBIIDAE): A MULTI-SCALE PHYLOGENETIC INVESTIGATION A Dissertation by LUKE MICHAEL TORNABENE This dissertation meets the standards for scope and quality of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and is hereby approved. Frank L. Pezold, PhD Chris Bird, PhD Chair Committee Member Kevin W. Conway, PhD James D. Hogan, PhD Committee Member Committee Member Lea-Der Chen, PhD Graduate Faculty Representative December 2014 ABSTRACT The family of fishes commonly known as gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae) is one of the most diverse lineages of vertebrates in the world. With more than 1700 species of gobies spread among more than 200 genera, gobies are the most species-rich family of marine fishes. Gobies can be found in nearly every aquatic habitat on earth, and are often the most diverse and numerically abundant fishes in tropical and subtropical habitats, especially coral reefs. Their remarkable taxonomic, morphological and ecological diversity make them an ideal model group for studying the processes driving taxonomic and phenotypic diversification in aquatic vertebrates. Unfortunately the phylogenetic relationships of many groups of gobies are poorly resolved, obscuring our understanding of the evolution of their ecological diversity. This dissertation is a multi-scale phylogenetic study that aims to clarify phylogenetic relationships across the Gobiidae and demonstrate the utility of this family for studies of macroevolution and speciation at multiple evolutionary timescales.
    [Show full text]
  • Abstracts Part 1
    375 Poster Session I, Event Center – The Snowbird Center, Friday 26 July 2019 Maria Sabando1, Yannis Papastamatiou1, Guillaume Rieucau2, Darcy Bradley3, Jennifer Caselle3 1Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA, 2Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Chauvin, LA, USA, 3University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA Reef Shark Behavioral Interactions are Habitat Specific Dominance hierarchies and competitive behaviors have been studied in several species of animals that includes mammals, birds, amphibians, and fish. Competition and distribution model predictions vary based on dominance hierarchies, but most assume differences in dominance are constant across habitats. More recent evidence suggests dominance and competitive advantages may vary based on habitat. We quantified dominance interactions between two species of sharks Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos and Carcharhinus melanopterus, across two different habitats, fore reef and back reef, at a remote Pacific atoll. We used Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) to observe dominance behaviors and quantified the number of aggressive interactions or bites to the BRUVs from either species, both separately and in the presence of one another. Blacktip reef sharks were the most abundant species in either habitat, and there was significant negative correlation between their relative abundance, bites on BRUVs, and the number of grey reef sharks. Although this trend was found in both habitats, the decline in blacktip abundance with grey reef shark presence was far more pronounced in fore reef habitats. We show that the presence of one shark species may limit the feeding opportunities of another, but the extent of this relationship is habitat specific. Future competition models should consider habitat-specific dominance or competitive interactions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Marine Biodiversity and Fisheries Catches of the Pitcairn Island Group
    The Marine Biodiversity and Fisheries Catches of the Pitcairn Island Group THE MARINE BIODIVERSITY AND FISHERIES CATCHES OF THE PITCAIRN ISLAND GROUP M.L.D. Palomares, D. Chaitanya, S. Harper, D. Zeller and D. Pauly A report prepared for the Global Ocean Legacy project of the Pew Environment Group by the Sea Around Us Project Fisheries Centre The University of British Columbia 2202 Main Mall Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................................. 2 Daniel Pauly RECONSTRUCTION OF TOTAL MARINE FISHERIES CATCHES FOR THE PITCAIRN ISLANDS (1950-2009) ...................................................................................... 3 Devraj Chaitanya, Sarah Harper and Dirk Zeller DOCUMENTING THE MARINE BIODIVERSITY OF THE PITCAIRN ISLANDS THROUGH FISHBASE AND SEALIFEBASE ..................................................................................... 10 Maria Lourdes D. Palomares, Patricia M. Sorongon, Marianne Pan, Jennifer C. Espedido, Lealde U. Pacres, Arlene Chon and Ace Amarga APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................... 23 APPENDIX 1: FAO AND RECONSTRUCTED CATCH DATA ......................................................................................... 23 APPENDIX 2: TOTAL RECONSTRUCTED CATCH BY MAJOR TAXA ............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Insights from Coral Reef Fishes
    Ecology, 87(12), 2006, pp. 3119–3127 Ó 2006 by the Ecological Society of America EXTREMES, PLASTICITY, AND INVARIANCE IN VERTEBRATE LIFE HISTORY TRAITS: INSIGHTS FROM CORAL REEF FISHES 1 MARTIAL DEPCZYNSKI AND DAVID R. BELLWOOD ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, School of Marine Biology, James Cook University, Townsville 4811 Australia Abstract. Life history theory predicts a range of directional generic responses in life history traits with increasing organism size. Among these are the relationships between size and longevity, mortality, growth rate, timing of maturity, and lifetime reproductive output. Spanning three orders of magnitude in size, coral reef fishes provide an ecologically diverse and species-rich vertebrate assemblage in which to test these generic responses. Here we examined these relationships by quantifying the life cycles of three miniature species of coral reef fish from the genus Eviota (Gobiidae) and compared their life history characteristics with other reef fish species. We found that all three species of Eviota have life spans of ,100 days, suffer high daily mortality rates of 7–8%, exhibit rapid linear growth, and matured at an earlier than expected size. Although lifetime reproductive output was low, consistent with their small body sizes, short generation times of 47–74 days help overcome low individual fecundity and appear to be a critical feature in maintaining Eviota populations. Comparisons with other coral reef fish species showed that Eviota species live on the evolutionary margins of life history possibilities for vertebrate animals. This addition of demographic information on these smallest size classes of coral reef fishes greatly extends our knowledge to encompass the full size spectrum and highlights the potential for coral reef fishes to contribute to vertebrate life history studies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Gobiid Fish, Eviota Albolineata, Has Been Re
    Japanese Journal of Ichthyology 魚 類 学 雑 誌 Vol. 35, No. 4 19 8 9 35 巻 4 号 1 9 8 9 年 First Record of the Gobiid Fish, Comparative material: CAS (California Academy Eviota albolineata, from Japan of Sciences, San Francisco) 48469 (6), non-type spec- imens of Eviota albolineata, used for the original de- Tomoki Sunobe and Kazuhiko Shimada scription, 15.6-22.2mm SL, Moorea, Society Is., Poly- nesia, Jul. 27, 1957. (Received February 25, 1988) Description. Counts : Dorsal fin VI-I, 8 (5 specimens), 9 (22); anal fin I, 7 (1) , 8 (26); pectoral The gobiid fish, Eviota albolineata, has been re- fin rays 16 (2), 17 (7), 18 (18), 10-15 usually ported to be widely distributed from the east coast branched; pelvic fin I, 4 plus a small fifth ray, of Africa to the Tuamotu Archipelago except the 1/10 of the fourth one in length (23); branches in Red Sea, Japan and the Hawaiian Islands (Jewett fourth soft ray of pelvic fin 5-11, average 7.5; and Lachner, 1983). However, twenty-seven segments between consecutive branches of fourth specimens of E. albolineata were collected from the pelvic soft ray 1-5, average 2.2; branched caudal Ryukyu Islands and Kagoshima Prefecture, for fin rays 11 (8), 12 (13), 13 (4); segmented caudal the first time from Japan. This species is dis- fin rays 16 (5), 17 (21), 18 (1); lateral scale rows tinguished from all other species of the genus 23 (6), 24 (9), 25 (7); transverse scale rows 6 (6), Eviota by lacking outstanding color markings when 7 (16); vertebrae 10 (27)+15 (6), 16 (20), 17(1).
    [Show full text]
  • BMC Evolutionary Biology Biomed Central
    BMC Evolutionary Biology BioMed Central Research article Open Access Evolution of miniaturization and the phylogenetic position of Paedocypris, comprising the world's smallest vertebrate Lukas Rüber*1, Maurice Kottelat2, Heok Hui Tan3, Peter KL Ng3 and Ralf Britz1 Address: 1Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK, 2Route de la Baroche 12, Case postale 57, CH-2952 Cornol, Switzerland (permanent address) and Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore 119260 and 3Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore 119260 Email: Lukas Rüber* - [email protected]; Maurice Kottelat - [email protected]; Heok Hui Tan - [email protected]; Peter KL Ng - [email protected]; Ralf Britz - [email protected] * Corresponding author Published: 13 March 2007 Received: 23 October 2006 Accepted: 13 March 2007 BMC Evolutionary Biology 2007, 7:38 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-7-38 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/7/38 © 2007 Rüber et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: Paedocypris, a highly developmentally truncated fish from peat swamp forests in Southeast Asia, comprises the world's smallest vertebrate. Although clearly a cyprinid fish, a hypothesis about its phylogenetic position among the subfamilies of this largest teleost family, with over 2400 species, does not exist.
    [Show full text]