Biogeografia e sistemática dos peixes aulopiformes

Abstract

The Aulopiformes are marine fishes ranging from Early Cretaceous to Recent. Fossil taxa are found in sediments from South and North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The living forms can be found from shallow coastal estuaries, to the abyssal depths, exceeding 3,000 m. Interrelationships among this group are subject of many studies. The aim of these studies is to apply historical biogeography methods as Panbiogeography and Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity to Aulopiformes fishes. Additionally, were performed a phylogenetic analysis of this taxon. As a result were obtained: 21 generalized tracks from Synodontoidei; 28, Chlorophthalmoidei; 3, Giganturoidei and 7 to Enchodontoidei. Synodontoidei shows a pattern of distribution primarily in tropical and subtropical regions, associated with the edge of tectonic plates and the substrate. Chlorophthalmoidei distributions are linked to chains of seamounts and deep water corals. Giganturoidei is a vicariant, group with Giganturidae occupying warmer waters and Bathysauridae colder regions. Enchodontoidei was associated with coral reefs and upwelling areas on past. Additionally, we analyzed a data matrix with 84 taxa and 105 morphological characters unordered and without a priori weighting. Results obtained with seven equally parsimonious trees with 1214 steps, consistency index of 0.1129 and retention index of 0.4970. The order Aulopiformes did not constitute a monophyletic group, with the families Chlorophthalmidae, Notosudidae, Synodontidae, Paraulopidae, Pseudotrichonotidae and Ipnopidae more closely related to Myctophidea than Alepisauroidei. From the composite of results it is concluded that the Historical Biogeography functioned as a tool to identifying taxonomic problems and its phylogenetic analysis recognized systematics disagreements, showing that more studies are required on Aulopiformes s anatomy in order to clarify their interrelationships.