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Evolution of the premaxillary fraenum and substratum in snubnose darters and allies (Percidae: Etheostoma )
Author(s) -
Ciccotto P. J.,
Mendelson T. C.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/jfb.12766
Subject(s) - percidae , biology , clade , ecology , actinopterygii , ecomorphology , subspecies , etheostoma , habitat , zoology , callitrichidae , cobble , phylogenetic tree , fish <actinopterygii> , perch , fishery , primate , biochemistry , gene , callithrix
Darters (Percidae: Etheostomatinae), a species‐rich group of North American freshwater fishes, vary in the presence of a premaxillary fraenum, a strip of skin that connects the premaxillary bones to the snout, and it is hypothesized that this trait is a trophic adaptation to particular substrata. Ancestral state reconstructions and analyses of phylogenetic associations between presence of the premaxillary fraenum and preferred stream substratum were conducted in a clade of closely related darters (snubnose darters and allies) that vary in morphology and habitat preferences. The most recent common ancestor of this clade was inferred to possess a fraenum and to inhabit rocky substrata, consistent with previous hypotheses, but a significant correlation between fraenum presence and substratum type across the phylogeny was not found.