Functional Morphology of Butterflyfishes

Abstract

Butterfl yfi shes (family Chaetodontidae) have historically been grouped with several deep-bodied reef fi sh families into the squamipinnes, or ‘scaly-fi nned’ fi shes (Mok and Shen, 1982; Gosline, 1985; Blum, 1988; Tyler et al., 1989). However, it is presently uncertain whether this grouping is monophyletic (Konow et al., 2008). Apart from butterfl yfi shes (128 species worldwide; Fig. 2.1), and their purported sister-family (Burgess, 1974), the angelfi sh, family Pomacanthidae (86 species), the squamipinnes are comprised of acanthuroid surgeonfi shes (Acanthuridae), rabbitfi shes (Siganidae) and the Moorish Idol (Zanclidae), the Kyphosidae (incl. microcanthids and girellids) and the fairly species-depauperate Ephippidae, Drepanidae and Scatophagidae (Tyler et al., 1989; Froese and Pauly, 2012). Butterfl yfi sh morphology has, in the past decades, primarily been investigated for the purpose of systematic classifi cation (Mok and Shen, 1982; Smith et al., 2003; Blum, 1988) (Fig. 2.1). Until very recently (Littlewood et al., 2004; Hsu et al., 2007; Fessler and Westneat, 2007), phylogenetic