New work on catfish families (coming out)
Posted: 08 Sep 2006, 18:02
Hello all,
There is a new major work on the families of catfishes coming out shortly. It is titled:
"A phylogenetic analysis of the major groups of catfishes (Teleostei:Siluriformes) using rag1 and rag2 nuclear gen sequences." The authors are John P. Sullivan, John G. Lundberg and Michael Hardman. The paper is to be published in the journal "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution". I don't have an issue number, but it should be available shortly. I thank the senior author for providing me with a pre-publication copy.
The paper is loaded with information. A few chosen tid-bits from it are below:
1. The authors recognize the family Horabagridae (which has been suggested previously). The family is noted to consist of the genera Horabagrus, Pseudeutropius and Platytropius and have a combined census of 17 species.
2. The families Pimelodidae, Heptapteridae and Pseudopimelodidae are confirmed. Lately there have been some thoughts in contradiction to this structure.
3. The family Heteropneustidae is confirmed.
4. On a genus level the authors find no reason to have two genera in the family Diplomystidae. They do not recognize Olivaichthys and place all species in the genus Diplomystes.
5. Bagridae is noted to be monophyletic only if the genus Rita is excluded. Could this be like the case of the South American (formerly pimelodid) genus Conorhynchos which is now considered incertae sedis (of uncertain position) and will probably end up in a family of its own?
6. Schilbidae may be in for some work as at least two groups within it are not considered to be keeping with Schilbidae sensu stricto (the African species and a group consisting of the Asian genera Ailia and Laides).
7. The authors note that they follow the spelling of Schilbidae, not Schilbeidae.
The above can only be considered as skiming the surface of material presented in the paper. But it will hopefully give you an idea of things done and potentially things to come. There are a lot of family matters that remain unresolved, so there will be much more to come in the future as other authors expand on (or disagree) with this work.
Lee[/b][/i]
There is a new major work on the families of catfishes coming out shortly. It is titled:
"A phylogenetic analysis of the major groups of catfishes (Teleostei:Siluriformes) using rag1 and rag2 nuclear gen sequences." The authors are John P. Sullivan, John G. Lundberg and Michael Hardman. The paper is to be published in the journal "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution". I don't have an issue number, but it should be available shortly. I thank the senior author for providing me with a pre-publication copy.
The paper is loaded with information. A few chosen tid-bits from it are below:
1. The authors recognize the family Horabagridae (which has been suggested previously). The family is noted to consist of the genera Horabagrus, Pseudeutropius and Platytropius and have a combined census of 17 species.
2. The families Pimelodidae, Heptapteridae and Pseudopimelodidae are confirmed. Lately there have been some thoughts in contradiction to this structure.
3. The family Heteropneustidae is confirmed.
4. On a genus level the authors find no reason to have two genera in the family Diplomystidae. They do not recognize Olivaichthys and place all species in the genus Diplomystes.
5. Bagridae is noted to be monophyletic only if the genus Rita is excluded. Could this be like the case of the South American (formerly pimelodid) genus Conorhynchos which is now considered incertae sedis (of uncertain position) and will probably end up in a family of its own?
6. Schilbidae may be in for some work as at least two groups within it are not considered to be keeping with Schilbidae sensu stricto (the African species and a group consisting of the Asian genera Ailia and Laides).
7. The authors note that they follow the spelling of Schilbidae, not Schilbeidae.
The above can only be considered as skiming the surface of material presented in the paper. But it will hopefully give you an idea of things done and potentially things to come. There are a lot of family matters that remain unresolved, so there will be much more to come in the future as other authors expand on (or disagree) with this work.
Lee[/b][/i]