Taxonomy and systematics of tetraodontiform fishes: a review focusing primarily on progress in the period from 1980 to 2014

Abstract

When the first Indo-Pacific Fish Conference (IPFC1) was held in Sydney in 1981, there were still many problems in the generic- and species-level taxonomy of all tetraodontiform families except for the recently reviewed Triacanthodidae and Triacanthidae. The period from IPFC1 to IPFC9 (1981−2013) was a time of great progress in the taxonomy and systematics of the Tetraodontiformes: many review and revisional papers have been published for various genera and species, with descriptions of many new taxa occurring mainly on coral reefs and in tropical freshwaters; and cladistic analyses of morphological characters have been performed to clarify phylogenetic relationships of various families and molecular analyses have greatly progressed to provide detailed phylogenetic relationships of families, genera, and even species. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review on developments in the taxonomy and systematics of the Tetraodontiformes, focusing primarily on contributions since 1980 (when James C. Tyler’s monumental work was published) through the period of IPFCs, including pertinent publications before 1980. This paper recognizes 412 extant species in the 10 families of living Tetraodontiformes, with the allocation of species and genera as follows: Triacanthodidae including 23 species in 11 genera, Triacanthidae seven species in four genera, Balistidae 37 species in 12 genera, Monacanthidae 102 species in 27 genera, Aracanidae 13 species in six genera, Ostraciidae 22 species in five genera, Triodontidae monotypic, Tetraodontidae 184 species in 27 genera, Diodontidae 18 species in seven genera, and Molidae five species in three genera. Phylogenetic relationships of the families have been clarified by morphological and molecular analyses and have provided well-supported sister relationships of the families: Triacanthodidae and Triacanthidae, Balistidae and Monacanthidae, and Tetraodontidae and Diodontidae. However, there remain problems with the phylogenetic positions of the Triodontidae and Molidae due to conflicts of differing positions in morphological and molecular studies (e.g., Molidae has been placed differently among molecular studies).