Meeting Abstract
49.6 Monday, Jan. 5 In search of evolutionary origin of cichlids among percomorph fishes CHEN, Wei-Jen*; MAYDEN, Richard L.; Saint Louis University wjchen.actinops@gmail.com
The family Cichlidae is one of the most diverse clades of freshwater fishes. Species from this group are a major component of the modern ichthyofauna in their native freshwater habitats, and constitute important subsistence fisheries worldwide and are important in the aquarium trade. In addition to their fundamental importance in both ecosystems and human activities, these fishes also provide remarkable examples of species diversity and adaptive radiations, and have attracted a great deal of attention from evolutionary biologists focusing on systematics, behavior, ecology, functional morphology, and genomics. In recent years, with extensive efforts investigating the systematics and population genetics of the group, more valuable insight into the diversity and evolution of cichlid fishes has rapidly emerged. However, one of the more interesting aspects of this group has been a traditional lack of understanding of the higher-level sister-group relationships of the Cichlidae relative to other teleosts. Their phylogenetic placement has varied over time according to different authors studying cichlid affinities to different perch-like lineages. In this paper, we review historical hypotheses and recent molecular evidence regarding sister-group relationships of cichlids. We also examine the phylogenetic relationships of major clades of percomorph fishes using 5 nuclear genes (c.a. 5 kb) with a tentative attempt to resolve this long-stand systematic problem in cichlids. Taxonomic sampling is composed of the taxa from labroid families (cichlids, and their putative allies: wrasses, parrotfishes, damselfishes, and surfperches), and many others from a diverse array of percomorph fishes, with a total of more than 100 taxa for the analyses. The resulting molecular phylogenetic hypothesis will be compared with previous hypotheses of relationships of these fishes and used in historical biogeographic interpretations.
