Comparative Osteology, Phylogeny and Classification of the Eastern South American Catfish Genus Trichomycterus (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae)
Laboratory of Systematics and Evolution of Teleost Fishes, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68049, Rio de Janeiro CEP 21941-971, Brazil
Academic Editor: Phillip Lobel
Taxonomy 2021, 1(2), 160-191; https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy1020013
Received: 14 May 2021
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Revised: 1 June 2021
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Accepted: 9 June 2021
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Published: 16 June 2021
Trichomycterus has been considered for a long time to be the most problematic genus of the diverse neotropical subfamily Trichomycterinae. Recently, Trichomycterus was restricted to a clade from eastern South America supported by molecular data, but no unique morphological character state was found to distinguish it, making it difficult to allocate new species based on morphology alone. The objectives of this study were to conduct an osteological comparative analysis comprising a large sample of valid species of Trichomycterus, to conduct a total evidence phylogenetic analysis, combining osteological characters and a multigene database, and to propose an intrageneric classification based on the results of the phylogenetic analysis. Fifty-two osteological characters were combined with a multigene molecular data set of 2974 bp for 44 species of Trichomycterus, and 21 outgroups generated a well-supported phylogenetic tree, making it possible to delimit and diagnose intrageneric lineages, of which six subgenera are recognized. The high morphological diversity of osteological structures herein first reported for Trichomycterus from eastern South America is possibly related to some ecological specializations. This study shows that osteological characters combined with molecular data may be useful to consistently delimit and distinguish between trichomycterines, shedding light on the still persistent problems in trichomycterine systematics.
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Keywords:
bone morphology; loricarioid catfishes; molecular phylogeny; mountain biodiversity; Neotropical region; new subgenera
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
MDPI and ACS Style
Costa, W.J.E.M. Comparative Osteology, Phylogeny and Classification of the Eastern South American Catfish Genus Trichomycterus (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae). Taxonomy 2021, 1, 160-191. https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy1020013
AMA Style
Costa WJEM. Comparative Osteology, Phylogeny and Classification of the Eastern South American Catfish Genus Trichomycterus (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae). Taxonomy. 2021; 1(2):160-191. https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy1020013
Chicago/Turabian StyleCosta, Wilson J. E. M. 2021. "Comparative Osteology, Phylogeny and Classification of the Eastern South American Catfish Genus Trichomycterus (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae)" Taxonomy 1, no. 2: 160-191. https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy1020013
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