Phylogeny and biogeography of a shallow water fish clade (Teleostei: Blenniiformes).

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Blenniiformes comprises six families, 151 genera and nearly 900 species of small teleost fishes closely associated with coastal benthic habitats. They provide an unparalleled opportunity for studying marine biogeography because they include the globally distributed families Tripterygiidae (triplefin blennies) and Blenniidae (combtooth blennies), the temperate Clinidae (kelp blennies), and three largely Neotropical families (Labrisomidae, Chaenopsidae, and Dactyloscopidae). However, interpretation of these distributional patterns has been hindered by largely unresolved inter-familial relationships and the lack of evidence of monophyly of the Labrisomidae.

Results

We explored the phylogenetic relationships of the Blenniiformes based on one mitochondrial (COI) an

SUBMITTER: Lin HC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3849733 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature