Phylogenetic relationships of the family Tarumaniidae (Characiformes) based on nuclear and mitochondrial data

Abstract

ABSTRACT Characiformes is an order of freshwater fishes that includes many commercially important and emblematic species from South America and Africa, such as the popular piranhas, hatchetfishes, African tiger fishes and tetras. The order is split into two suborders with a total of 24 families, 282 genera and ca. 2,100 species. Here, we present an expanded phylogeny of characiform fishes, including data for 520 species and three genes (12S, 16S and RAG1), and the recently described family Tarumaniidae, which has not been examined by previous molecular analysis. Although our genetic coverage is limited to three gene fragments, the tree inferred based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference supports the monophyly of all characiform families and is largely congruent with results from recent studies that sampled less taxa but more genes. Also in agreement with a morphological hypothesis, our results strongly support the sister-group relationships between the family Tarumaniidae and Erythrinidae. Based on our results and that of the other molecular analyses, we propose a revised circumscription of the superfamily Erythrinoidea to include the families Tarumaniidae and Erythrinidae only.