Journal Article
Diversification of the sleepers (Gobiiformes: Gobioidei: Eleotridae) and evolution of the root gobioid families
Thacker, C.E., McCraney, W.T., Harrington, R.C., Near, T.J., Shelley, J.J., Adams, M., Hammer, M.P. and Unmack, P.J.
Record Number:
6211
Year:
2023
Journal:
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Pages:
1-9
Volume:
186 107841
Notes:
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/byncnd/4.0/).
Abstract:
Eleotridae (sleepers) and five smaller families are the earliest diverging lineages within Gobioidei. Most inhabit
freshwaters in and around the Indo-Pacific, but Eleotridae also includes species that have invaded the Neotropics
as well as several inland radiations in the freshwaters of Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea. Previous
efforts to infer phylogeny of these families have been based on sets of mitochondrial or nuclear loci and have
yielded uncertain resolution of clades within Eleotridae. We expand the taxon sampling of previous studies and
use genomic data from nuclear ultraconserved elements (UCEs) to infer phylogeny, then calibrate the hypothesis
with recently discovered fossils. Our hypothesis clarifies ambiguously resolved relationships, provides a timescale
for divergences, and indicates the core crown Eleotridae diverged over a short period 24.3–26.3 Ma in the
late Oligocene. Within Eleotridae, we evaluate diversification dynamics with BAMM and find evidence for an
overall slowdown in diversification over the past 35 Ma, but with a sharp increase 3.5 Ma in the genus Mogurnda,
a clade of brightly colored species found in the freshwaters of Australia and New Guinea.
Times Cited:
5