An integrative phylogenetic approach for inferring relationships of fossil gobioids (Teleostei: Gobiiformes)

Abstract

The suborder Gobioidei is among the most diverse groups of vertebrates, comprising about 2310 species. In the fossil record gobioids date back to the early Eocene (c. 50 m.y. ago), and a considerable increase in numbers of described species is evident since the middle Miocene (c. 16 m.y. ago). About 40 skeleton-based gobioid species and > 100 otolith-based species have been described until to date. However, assignment of a fossil gobioid species to specific families has often remained tentative, even if well preserved complete specimens are available. The reasons are that synapomorphies that can be recognized in a fossil skeleton are rare (or absent) and that no phylogenetic framework applicable to gobioid fossils exists. Here we aim to overcome this problem by developing a phylogenetic total evidence framework that is suitable to place a fossil skeleton-based gobioid at family level. Using both literature and newly collected data we assembled a morphological character matrix (48 characters) for 29 extant species, representing all extant gobioid families, and ten fossil gobioid species, and we compiled a multi-gene concatenated alignment (supermatrix; 6271 bp) of published molecular sequence data for the extant species. Bayesian and Maximum Parsimony analyses revealed that our selection of extant species was sufficient to achieve a molecular ‘backbone’ that fully conforms to previous molecular work. Our data revealed that inclusion of all fossil species simultaneously produced very poorly resolved trees, even for some extant taxa. In contrast, addition of a single fossil species to the total evidence data set of the extant species provided new insight in its possible placement at family level, especially in a Bayesian framework. Five out of the ten fossil species were recovered in the same family as had been suggested in previous works based on comparative morphology. The remaining five fossil species had hitherto been left as family incertae sedis. Now, based on our phylogenetic framework, new and mostly well supported hypotheses to which clades they could belong can be presented. We conclude that the total evidence framework presented here will be beneficial for all future work dealing with the phylogenetic placement of a fossil skeleton-based gobioid and thus will help to improve our understanding of the evolutionary history of these fascinating fishes. Moreover, our data highlight that increased sampling of fossil taxa in a total-evidence context is not universally beneficial, as might be expected, but strongly depends on the study group and peculiarities of the morphological data.

Phylogenetic Classification of Living and Fossil Ray-Finned Fishes (Actinopterygii)

“…Phylogenies inferred from morphological characters are fairly congruent with relationships inferred from molecular data (Hoese and Gill 1993), specifically in resolving Rhyacichthyidae and Odontobutidae as the sister lineage of all other gobioids and supporting Thalasseleotrididae as the sister lineage of a clade containing Gobiidae and Oxudercidae (A. C. Gill and Mooi 2012;Reichenbacher et al 2020;Gierl et al 2022). The presence of five branchiostegal rays is consistent with the monophyly of a clade containing the gobioid lineages Thalasseleotrididae, Oxudercidae, and Gobiidae (Hoese 1984;Hoese and Gill 1993 Composition.…”

“…There are currently 2,347 living species of Gobioidei (Fricke et al 2023) classified in Rhyacichthyidae, Odontobutidae, Milyeringidae, Xenisthmidae, Butidae, Eleotridae, Thalasseleotrididae, Oxudercidae, and Gobiidae. Fossil Gobioidei include the pan-butids †Carlomonnius and †Lepidocottus and the pan-thalasseleotrids †Eleogobius and †Pirskenius (Gierl et al 2013(Gierl et al , 2022Přikryl 2014;Gierl and Reichenbacher 2015;Bannikov and Carnevale 2016;Reichenbacher et al 2020). Details of the ages and locations of the fossil taxa are presented in Appendix 1.…”

Comparison of traditional and molecular surveys of fish biodiversity in southern Te Wāhipounamu/Fiordland (Aotearoa/New Zealand)

“…Concerning our most reliable taxonomic assignments, we could find no mention of A. australis (short-finned eel), and M. novaezelandiae (Hoki) in the Te Wāhipounamu-specific literature; consequently, available reference data of these taxa ought to be added to local sequence data repositories. On the contrary, we found literature mentions of Gobiopsis atrata (Ayling & Cox, 1982), and recently described Thalasseleotris iota (New Zealand pygmy sleeper; Hoese & Roberts, 2005) for Te Wāhipounamu, and we suspect that our imperfect assignment of Asterropteryx semipunctata (Starry goby)-itself known from the northern coasts of Australia (Allen et al, 1997) and elsewhere-stems from one of these two species (for a recent multi-locus phylogeny see Gierl et al, 2022). Taxa only detected by BRUV should be added to eDNA sequences collections as well (B. unimaculatus, C. kumu, G. galeus, M. lenticulatus, S. cardinalis).…”

Diversity of gobioid fishes in the late middle Miocene of northern Moldova, Eastern Paratethys—Part II: description of †Moldavigobius helenae gen. et sp. nov.

“…However, this character state represents a plesiomorphic condition, since the otoliths of the Thalasseleotrididae, to which the (more derived) Gobiidae + Oxudercidae are sister (Gill and Mooi 2012;Thacker et al 2015), also do not show a marked posterodorsal projection (see Schwarzhans 2019: figs. 99.9-11 for otoliths of Thalasseleotris iota; see also Gierl et al 2022).…”