Diversification of the sleepers (Gobiiformes: Gobioidei: Eleotridae) and evolution of the root gobioid families

Christine E Thacker; W Tyler McCraney; Richard C Harrington; Thomas J Near; James J Shelley; Mark Adams; Michael P Hammer; Peter J Unmack

doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107841

Diversification of the sleepers (Gobiiformes: Gobioidei: Eleotridae) and evolution of the root gobioid families

Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2023 Sep:186:107841. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107841. Epub 2023 Jun 15.

Authors

Christine E Thacker¹, W Tyler McCraney², Richard C Harrington³, Thomas J Near⁴, James J Shelley⁵, Mark Adams⁶, Michael P Hammer⁷, Peter J Unmack⁸

Affiliations

¹ Vertebrate Zoology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara CA, 93105 USA; Research and Collections, Department of Ichthyology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900, Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007 USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 612 Charles E. Young Drive South, Box 957246, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7246 USA.
³ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 USA.
⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 USA; Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 USA.
⁵ National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Gate 10 Silverdale Road Hillcrest, 3216 Hamilton, New Zealand.
⁶ Evolutionary Biology Unit, South Australian Museum, North Terrace Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA, 5005, Australia.
⁷ Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, GPO Box 4646, Darwin NT, 0801, Australia.
⁸ Centre for Applied Water Science, Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra ACT 2617, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.

PMID: 37327832
DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107841

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.

Keywords: Fish; Freshwater; Gobiomorphus; Hypseleotris; Mogurnda; New Guinea.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Fishes* / genetics
Fossils
Humans
Mitochondria
Perciformes* / genetics
Phylogeny