TABLE 4 - uploaded by Werner Schwarzhans
Content may be subject to copyright.
Meristic and morphometric characters of Saccogaster brayi, S. hawaii and S. horrida.

Meristic and morphometric characters of Saccogaster brayi, S. hawaii and S. horrida.

Source publication
Article
Full-text available
Material of three similar and probably related genera of the viviparous ophidiiform family, Bythitidae, has been studied. The monotypic Hastatobythites is only known from the original two specimens; re-examination of the paratype and information of the holotype clearly demonstrates the validity of the genus. The revision of Saccogaster (Cohen & Nie...

Contexts in source publication

Context 1
... The principal meristic and morphometric characters are shown in Table 4. Head and body elongate and compressed with tapering caudal part and blunt snout. ...
Context 2
... The principal meristic and morphometric characters are shown in Table 4. Head and body elongate and compressed with tapering caudal part and blunt snout. ...
Context 3
... The principal meristic and morphometric characters shown in Table 4. Head and body elongate and compressed with tapering caudal part and blunt snout. ...

Similar publications

Article
Full-text available
We assessed annual growth of Coregonus clupeaformis (Lake Whitefish) from a natural, lightly exploited population in a small lake in northern Maine using observed and back-calculated length-at-age data. We sampled Lake Whitefish from Clear Lake, ME, with gill nets and extracted otoliths from 57 fish. We incorporated age-at-length data into a von Be...
Article
Full-text available
Material of three similar and probably related genera of the viviparous ophidiiform family, Bythitidae, has been studied.The monotypic Hastatobythites is only known from the original two specimens; re-examination of the paratype and infor-mation of the holotype clearly demonstrates the validity of the genus. The revision of Saccogaster (Cohen & Nie...

Citations

... However, species of Tuamotuichthys are currently known to only occur in the western and southern Pacific Ocean. While the genus Parasaccogaster occurs in both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, only one species, Parasaccogaster normae of the southeast Pacific, is known to have 13 caudal-fin rays (Nielsen et al. 2012). It is worth highlighting that the species in both Parasaccogaster and Tuamotuichthys are represented by one to a few specimens and the fin-ray counts may be broader in range than currently known. ...
Article
Full-text available
Since 2006, an ophidiiform larva with an ovoid body, elongate anterior dorsal-fin ray, and long trailing fleshy filament has been identified as Pycnocraspedum squamipinne. Similarly, the larvae of the ophidiid genus Luciobrotula have been tentatively identified since 1988, with posteriorly displaced dorsal fins and bulging or exterilium guts. However, neither of these larval forms morphologically agree with their adult counterparts. Recently, blackwater divers captured and photographed specimens of larval Luciobrotula and Pycnocraspedum off the coast of Hawaiʻi and Florida, making them available for both morphological and molecular sampling. After examining these larvae and analyzing DNA barcode sequences, as well as a newly captured and sequenced adult of Pycnocraspedum phyllosoma, we revise the previously identified “Pycnocraspedum” larvae to species of Luciobrotula. We describe the larvae of Luciobrotula bartschi and Luciobrotula corethromycter for the first time, highlighting an extraordinary loss of multiple anterior dorsal-fin elements in their ontogeny. We also generate the first DNA sequences for L. corethromycter and P. phyllosoma, adding to the depauperate number of sequences available for ophidiiforms. For the previously identified “Luciobrotula” larvae, neither morphological nor molecular characters provide definitive identification other than recovering them among the Bythitidae. We provide new morphological observations, revised descriptions, and generate a phylogeny of ophidiiform fishes based on COI to place these larvae in a phylogenetic context, prompting further investigation into the relationships of the Ophidiiformes using additional genetic markers. Our study emphasizes the importance of blackwater diving to improving our understanding of marine larval fishes and the need for additional molecular sampling of the diverse order of brotulas, cusk-eels, pearlfishes, and their allies.
... Only Barathronus has a well ossified vertebral column with hour-glassed formed vertebral centra (Nielsen, 1969Nielsen, , 2015). The high number of precaudal vertebrae (26–50) presented as unique in Aphyonidae by Nielsen et al. (1999) is also matched by some Diplacanthopoma (19–50), and a peculiar otolith character, an anterior ridge like extension of the ostial colliculum, is only found in species of Aphyonus and in species of the bythitid genus Saccogaster (Nielsen et al., 2012; Schwarzhans, 1981). The presence of juvenile characters in a derived clade indicates a peadomorphic origin of Aphyonus, Barathronus and Sciadonus. ...
Article
The order Ophidiiformes is a large but not very well known group of fishes, unique among teleosts for showing high diversity in both deep sea and shallow reef habitats. The current classification includes more than 500 species, 115 genera and four families, based primarily on mode of reproduction: vivipar-ous Aphyonidae and Bythitidae vs oviparous Carapidae and Ophidiidae. Since 2004 we revised the bythi-tid tribe Dinematichthyini, described more than 100 new species and noticed that this group has unique morphological characters, perhaps supporting a higher level of classification than the current status. Here we study the viviparous families phylogenetically with partial mitochondrial (nd4, 16s) and nuclear (Rag1) DNA sequences (2194 bp). We use a fossil calibration of otolith-based taxa to calibrate the age of the clade comprising bythitid and dinematicththyid representatives, together with fossil calibrations adopted from previous phylogenetic studies. The separation of the order into two major lineages, the vivi-parous Bythitoidei and the oviparous Ophidioidei is confirmed. At the familial level, however, a new classification is presented for the viviparous clades, placing Aphyonidae as a derived, pedomorphic member of Bythitidae (new diagnosis provided, 33 genera and 118 species). The current subfamily Brosmophycinae is considered polyphyletic and we propose family status for Dinematichthyidae (25 gen-era, 114 species), supported by unique, morphological synapomorphic characters in the male copulatory apparatus. Previous use of the caudal fin separation or fusion with vertical fins is ambiguous. Age estimates based on calibrated molecular phylogeny agrees with fossil data, giving an origin within the Cretaceous (between 84 and 104 mya) for a common ancestor to Ophidiiformes.
... Only Barathronus has a well ossified vertebral column with hour-glassed formed vertebral centra (Nielsen, 1969Nielsen, , 2015). The high number of precaudal vertebrae (26–50) presented as unique in Aphyonidae by Nielsen et al. (1999) is also matched by some Diplacanthopoma (19–50), and a peculiar otolith character, an anterior ridge like extension of the ostial colliculum, is only found in species of Aphyonus and in species of the bythitid genus Saccogaster (Nielsen et al., 2012; Schwarzhans, 1981). The presence of juvenile characters in a derived clade indicates a peadomorphic origin of Aphyonus, Barathronus and Sciadonus. ...
Article
Full-text available
This article comprise the data related to the research article “A new classification of viviparous brotulas (Bythitidae) – with family status for Dinematichthyidae – based on molecular, morphological and fossil data” [1], and makes it possible to explore and reproduce the topologies that allowed [1] to infer the relationship between the families Bythitidae and Dinematichthyidae. The supplementary data also holds nexus-input files for the Bayesian analysis and the ‘.xml’-input files – with and without nucleotide data – that are used in the fossil-calibrated phylogenetic analysis with a relaxed clock model. The resulting topologies are provided as ‘.new’-files together with a characters matrix file for traits to trace across the inferred phylogenies.
... Only Barathronus has a well ossified vertebral column with hour-glassed formed vertebral centra (Nielsen, 1969(Nielsen, , 2015. The high number of precaudal vertebrae (26-50) presented as unique in Aphyonidae by Nielsen et al. (1999) is also matched by some Diplacanthopoma (19-50), and a peculiar otolith character, an anterior ridge like extension of the ostial colliculum, is only found in species of Aphyonus and in species of the bythitid genus Saccogaster (Nielsen et al., 2012;Schwarzhans, 1981). The presence of juvenile characters in a derived clade indicates a peadomorphic origin of Aphyonus, Barathronus and Sciadonus. ...
Article
Full-text available
The presence of an endemic fauna in subtropical western Atlantic has been reported since the nineteenth century, but only in the last fifty years the processes that determined the distribution of organisms in this region have been studied. In this paper, hypothesis about the processes of diversification and the origin of this fauna between the coasts of Rio de Janeiro and Argentina, a region usually referred as Argentinean Province, are reviewed and discussed. Although previous authors have stated that speciation of this fauna was driven by relatively recent marine trans-gression/regression cycles, it was observed from more recent studies that the origin of endemic taxa in this province would have been older and in result of different processes, particularly dispersal from the eastern South Pacific. Problems in the recognition of endemic taxa and areas of endemism are presented and suggestions for future studies are provided.
Article
Full-text available
Cusk-eels of the order Ophidiiformes are a morphologically diverse assemblage of eel-like, elongate, posteriorly tapering percomorph fishes that occur worldwide in marine waters, from tropical reef areas to the deep sea. The about 400 extant and fossil species included in the ophidiiform clade are arranged into two main lineages, Bythitoidei and Ophidioidei, based on reproductive biology and the position of the anterior nostrils. The anatomy and phylogenetic relationships of these fishes are largely unknown, and the fossil record has not provided substantial information about the earliest phases of their evolutionary history. †Pastorius methenyi, new genus and species, the oldest member of the Ophidiiformes based on articulated skeletal remains, is described herein based on a single specimen collected from the Campanian-Maastrichtian organic-rich laminated limestone of the Liburnica Formation outcropping near the village of Trebiciano, north-eastern Italy. The comparative analysis of osteological and meristic features indicates that †Pastorius methenyi is characterized by at least one of the probable ophidiiform synapomorphies (exclusion of the supraoccipital from the posterior cranial margin by substantial posterodorsal extension of the exoccipitals) and exhibits a unique combination of characters, including a posteriorly broadly expanded maxilla; supramaxilla present; eight branchiostegals; 39 vertebrae; first neural spine shorter than those following; neural arch of first vertebra feebly connected to the first vertebral centrum though a narrow pedestal of bone; anterior abdominal vertebrae ostensibly lacking expanded ribs; caudal skeleton with ostensibly fused first preural, first ural centrum, first uroneural, and ventral hypural plate, and ostensibly fused second ural centrum and dorsal hypural plate, autogenous parhypural, and two epurals; caudal fin free, with 13 rays; a single ossified supraneural located in front of the second neural spine; and notably reduced number of dorsal- and anal-fin rays. †Pastorius is placed as the sister-group of all recent bythitoids, even if some features might indicate that it represents the sister-group of all ophidiiforms. †Pastorius provides the first unequivocal evidence that percomorphs with very elongate and compressed bodies were in existence in the Cretaceous, indicating that this group was characterized by a very high disparity and a vast diversification of bodyplans well before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. © 2015 by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.