Phylogenetic classification of ray-finned fishes

[Silurus]

This is a big one.

Near, TJ & CE Thacker, 2024. Phylogenetic classification of living and fossil ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii). Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 65: 3-302.

Abstract

Classification of the tremendous diversity of ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) began with the designation of taxonomic groups on the basis of morphological similarity. Starting in the late 1960s morphological phylogenetics became the basis for the classification of Actinopterygii but failed to resolve many relationships, particularly among lineages within the hyperdiverse Percomorpha. The introduction of molecular phylogenetics led to a dramatic reconfiguration of actinopterygian phylogeny. Refined phylogenetic resolution afforded by molecular studies revealed an uneven diversity among actinopterygian lineages, resulting in a proliferation of redundant group names in Linnean-ranked classifications. Here we provide an unranked phylogenetic classification for actinopterygian fishes based on a summary phylogeny of 830 lineages of ray-finned fishes that includes all currently recognized actinopterygian taxonomic families and 287 fossil taxa. We provide phylogenetic definitions for 90 clade names and review seven previously defined names. For each of the 97 clade names, we review the etymology of the clade name, clade species diversity and constituent lineages, clade diagnostic morphological apomorphies, review synonyms, and provide a discussion of the clade's nomenclatural and systematic history. The new classification is free of redundant group names and includes only one new name among the 97 clade names we review and describe, yielding a comprehensive classification that is based explicitly on the phylogeny of ray-finned fishes that has emerged in the 21st century and rests on the foundation of the previous 200 years of research on the systematics of ray-finned fishes.

[Silurus]

Guess we have to move

Rita

to the Ritidae.

[Jools]

Done. That is indeed a tome!

Also of note,

Molecular phylogenetic analyses resolve the enigmatic

Conorhynchos conirostris

(Anteater Catfish), which is currently not classified in a Linnean-ranked taxonomic family (Eschmeyer and Fricke 2023), in a clade with other South American freshwater lineages that includes Heptapteridae (threebarbeled catfishes), Pimelodidae (long-whiskered catfishes), and Pseudopimelodidae (bumblebee catfishes) (Sullivan et al. 2006, 2013; G. S. C. Silva et al. 2021). An analysis of a supermatrix of 27 nuclear and mitochondrial genes places this South American siluroid lineage in the Big Africa clade (Rabosky et al. 2018; J. Chang et al. 2019).

Cheers,

Jools