Meeting Abstract

P2.210  Saturday, Jan. 5  Insights from a preliminary phylogeny of the Sharpnose Pufferfishes (genus Canthigaster) STUMP, E.*; ROCHA, L.; ROCHA, C.; CARPENTER, K.; Old Dominion University; California Academy of Sciences; California Academy of Sciences; Old Dominion University estum002@odu.edu

The genus Canthigaster, popularly known as the Tobies or Sharpnose Pufferfishes, currently consists of 35 globally distributed tropical and subtropical marine fishes. These fishes are small (usually under 12cm), omnivorous, highly derived teleosts and are typically found in shallow waters associated with coral or rocky reefs. Canthigaster are morphologically conserved, and are notable for the “monotonous sameness of external morphology from species to species” (Allen and Randall 1977). Consequently, color is used as the primary tool for distinguishing between species and in the recent diagnosis of new species. Here, we take the first steps towards developing the first comprehensive phylogeny of the genus Canthigaster based on mitochondrial and nuclear molecular markers. A partial phylogeny based on the mitochondrial CO1 gene is presented, from which I propose the following hypotheses: 1) Canthigaster recently colonized the Atlantic basin from the Indian Ocean 2) The wide-ranging Indo-Pacific species C. solandri may be a complex of two or more species. A complete phylogeny of this genus will ultimately contribute to our growing understanding of evolutionary processes in the marine environment and the role of ecology and behavior in maintaining the diversity of reef fishes with high disbursal potential. This phylogeny will also be relevant in the discussion of color as a diagnostic for detecting evolutionary partitions and delineating taxonomic species units.