scholarly journals Phylogenomics of piranhas and pacus (Serrasalmidae) uncovers how convergent diets obfuscate traditional morphological taxonomy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. Kolmann ◽  
L.C. Hughes ◽  
L.P. Hernandez ◽  
D. Arcila ◽  
R. Betancur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sister Taxon ◽  
South American ◽  
Widespread Occurrence ◽  
Fossil Calibration ◽  
Morphological Taxonomy ◽  
Exon Capture ◽  
American River ◽  
The Family ◽  
Continental Basin ◽  
Ecological Convergence

ABSTRACTThe Amazon and neighboring South American river basins harbor the world’s most diverse assemblages of freshwater fishes. One of the most prominent South American fish families are the Serrasalmidae (pacus and piranhas), found in nearly every continental basin. Serrasalmids are keystone ecological taxa, being some of the top riverine predators as well as the primary seed dispersers in the flooded forest. Despite their widespread occurrence and notable ecologies, serrasalmid evolutionary history and systematics are controversial. For example, the sister taxon to serrasalmids is contentious, the relationships of major clades within the family are obfuscated by different methodologies, and half of the extant serrasalmid genera are suggested to be non-monophyletic. We used exon capture to explore the evolutionary relationships among 64 (of 99) species across all 16 serrasalmid genera and their nearest outgroups, including multiple individuals per species in order to account for cryptic lineages. To reconstruct the timeline of serrasalmid diversification, we time-calibrated this phylogeny using two different fossil-calibration schemes to account for uncertainty in taxonomy with respect to fossil teeth. Finally, we analyzed diet evolution across the family and comment on associated changes in dentition, highlighting the ecomorphological diversity within serrasalmids. We document widespread non-monophyly within Myleinae, as well as between Serrasalmus and Pristobrycon, and propose that reliance on traits like teeth to distinguish among genera is confounded by ecological convergence, especially among herbivorous and omnivorous taxa. We clarify the relationships among all serrasalmid genera, propose new subfamily affiliations, and support hemiodontids as the sister taxon to Serrasalmidae.

scholarly journals Phylogenomics of Piranhas and Pacus (Serrasalmidae) Uncovers How Dietary Convergence and Parallelism Obfuscate Traditional Morphological Taxonomy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M A Kolmann ◽  
L C Hughes ◽  
L P Hernandez ◽  
D Arcila ◽  
R Betancur-R ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sister Taxon ◽  
South American ◽  
Widespread Occurrence ◽  
Fossil Calibration ◽  
Morphological Taxonomy ◽  
Exon Capture ◽  
Time Calibration ◽  
American River ◽  
The Family ◽  
Continental Basin

Abstract The Amazon and neighboring South American river basins harbor the world’s most diverse assemblages of freshwater fishes. One of the most prominent South American fish families is the Serrasalmidae (pacus and piranhas), found in nearly every continental basin. Serrasalmids are keystone ecological taxa, being some of the top riverine predators as well as the primary seed dispersers in the flooded forest. Despite their widespread occurrence and notable ecologies, serrasalmid evolutionary history and systematics are controversial. For example, the sister taxon to serrasalmids is contentious, the relationships of major clades within the family are inconsistent across different methodologies, and half of the extant serrasalmid genera are suggested to be non-monophyletic. We analyzed exon capture to reexamine the evolutionary relationships among 63 (of 99) species across all 16 serrasalmid genera and their nearest outgroups, including multiple individuals per species to account for cryptic lineages. To reconstruct the timeline of serrasalmid diversification, we time-calibrated this phylogeny using two different fossil-calibration schemes to account for uncertainty in taxonomy with respect to fossil teeth. Finally, we analyzed diet evolution across the family and comment on associated changes in dentition, highlighting the ecomorphological diversity within serrasalmids. We document widespread non-monophyly of genera within Myleinae, as well as between Serrasalmus and Pristobrycon, and propose that reliance on traits like teeth to distinguish among genera is confounded by ecological homoplasy, especially among herbivorous and omnivorous taxa. We clarify the relationships among all serrasalmid genera, propose new subfamily affiliations, and support hemiodontids as the sister taxon to Serrasalmidae. [Characiformes; exon capture; ichthyochory; molecular time-calibration; piscivory.]

Emergence of New Potential Insect Pests of Date Palm: Could Climate Change Be the Reason?

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 242-245
Author(s):  
Hamadttu A. F. El-Shafie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Date Palm ◽  
Insect Pests ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
South American ◽  
Palm Fruit ◽  
The Family ◽  
American Palm ◽  
Sorghum Chafer

Four insect species were reported as new potential pests of date palm in recent years. They are sorghum chafer (Pachnoda interrupta), the rose chafer (Potosia opaca), the sericine chafer beetle (Maladera insanablis), and the South American palm borer (Pysandisia archon). The first three species belong to the order Coleoptera and the family Scarabaeidae, while the fourth species is a lepidopteran of the family Castniidae. The injury as well as the economic damage caused by the four species on date palm need to be quantified. Due to climate change and anthropogenic activities, the date palm pest complex is expected to change in the future. To the author's knowledge, this article provides the first report of sorghum chafer as a pest damaging date palm fruit.

A new genus and species of groundwater isopod of the family Protojaniridae (Isopoda: Asellota: Gnathostenetroidoidea) from southern Chile

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4966 (5) ◽  
pp. 550-562
Author(s):  
JORGE PÉREZ-SCHULTHEISS ◽  
GEORGE D. F. WILSON
Keyword(s):  
New Genus ◽  
South American ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
Southern Chile ◽  
New Genus And Species ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Family ◽  
Apical Lobe ◽  
Antennal Scale ◽  
Freshwater Springs

A new asellotan isopod of the family Protojaniridae Fresi, Idato & Scipione, 1980 is described from freshwater springs in the Osorno province, Los Lagos region, southern Chile. Wiyufiloides osornoensis gen. & sp. n. is the third South American protojanirid species and the first known groundwater isopod in Chile. The new genus and species is principally characterized by the presence of a vestigial antennal scale, a strongly subchelate pereiopod I and the absence of an apical lobe on the protopod of pleopod II. The new taxon is described in detail and figures are given. 

scholarly journals The role of chromosomal fusion in the karyotypic evolution of the genus Ageneiosus (Siluriformes: Auchenipteridae)

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Laridondo Lui ◽  
Daniel Rodrigues Blanco ◽  
Juliana de Fatima Martinez ◽  
Vladimir Pavan Margarido ◽  
Paulo Cesar Venere ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chromosome Pair ◽  
5S Rdna ◽  
Proximal Region ◽  
Terminal Region ◽  
Metacentric Chromosome ◽  
South American ◽  
Submetacentric Chromosome ◽  
Araguaia River ◽  
The Family ◽  
Preferential Location

Ageneiosus is the most widely distributed genus of the family Auchenipteridae among South American river basins. Although chromosome studies in the family are scarce, this genus has the largest number of analyzed species, with 2n = 54 to 56 chromosomes, differing from the rest of the family (2n = 58). This study aimed to analyze Ageneiosus inermis from the Araguaia River basin. The diploid number found was of 56 chromosomes. Heterochromatin was allocated in terminal region of most chromosomes, plus a pericentromeric heterochromatic block in pair 1, a pair distinguished by size in relation to other chromosomes pairs. AgNORs were detected in only one submetacentric chromosome pair, which was confirmed by FISH. 5S rDNA was present in only one metacentric chromosome pair. Hybridization with [TTAGGG]n sequence marked the telomeres of all chromosomes, in addition to an ITS in the proximal region of the short arm of pair 1. The repetitive [GATA]n sequence was dispersed, with preferential location in terminal region of the chromosomes. Ageneiosus has a genomic organization somewhat different when compared to other Auchenipteridae species. Evidences indicate that a chromosomal fusion originated the first metacentric chromosome pair in A. inermis, rearrangement which may be a basal event for the genus

Kinship Analysis of Offspring of the Giant South American River Turtle (Podocnemis expansa) Using Microsatellite DNA Markers

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-127
Author(s):  
Cleiton Fantin ◽  
Jorge Ferreira ◽  
Mara Magalhães ◽  
Thais da Silva Damasseno ◽  
Dorothy Ivila de Melo Pereira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Markers ◽  
Microsatellite Dna ◽  
South American ◽  
Kinship Analysis ◽  
American River ◽  
Microsatellite Dna Markers ◽  
Podocnemis Expansa

A molecular phylogeny of the circum-Antarctic Opiliones family Neopilionidae

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Giribet ◽  
Kate Sheridan ◽  
Caitlin M. Baker ◽  
Christina J. Painting ◽  
Gregory I. Holwell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
South America ◽  
Morphological Study ◽  
18S Rrna ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Sister Group ◽  
28S Rrna ◽  
South American ◽  
Australian Species ◽  
The Family

The Opiliones family Neopilionidae is restricted to the terranes of the former temperate Gondwana: South America, Africa, Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand. Despite decades of morphological study of this unique fauna, it has been difficult reconciling the classic species of the group (some described over a century ago) with recent cladistic morphological work and previous molecular work. Here we attempted to investigate the pattern and timing of diversification of Neopilionidae by sampling across the distribution range of the family and sequencing three markers commonly used in Sanger-based approaches (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA and cytochrome-c oxidase subunit I). We recovered a well-supported and stable clade including Ballarra (an Australian ballarrine) and the Enantiobuninae from South America, Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand, but excluding Vibone (a ballarrine from South Africa). We further found a division between West and East Gondwana, with the South American Thrasychirus/Thrasychiroides always being sister group to an Australian–Zealandian (i.e. Australia + New Zealand + New Caledonia) clade. Resolution of the Australian–Zealandian taxa was analysis-dependent, but some analyses found Martensopsalis, from New Caledonia, as the sister group to an Australian–New Zealand clade. Likewise, the species from New Zealand formed a clade in some analyses, but Mangatangi often came out as a separate lineage from the remaining species. However, the Australian taxa never constituted a monophyletic group, with Ballarra always segregating from the remaining Australian species, which in turn constituted 1–3 clades, depending on the analysis. Our results identify several generic inconsistencies, including the possibility of Thrasychiroides nested within Thrasychirus, Forsteropsalis being paraphyletic with respect to Pantopsalis, and multiple lineages of Megalopsalis in Australia. In addition, the New Zealand Megalopsalis need generic reassignment: Megalopsalis triascuta will require its own genus and M. turneri is here transferred to Forsteropsalis, as Forsteropsalis turneri (Marples, 1944), comb. nov.

River Turtle Exploitation: Past and Present

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Moll ◽  
Edward O. Moll
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Central American ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
South American ◽  
American River ◽  
The World ◽  
Nesting Sites ◽  
Old World Tropics ◽  
River Turtles

Turtles and their eggs have long served as an important source of food for humans—almost certainly since very early in the evolution of the hominid lineage, and surely for at least the last 20,000 years (Nicholls, 1977). Evidence in the form of shells and skeletal material (some showing burn marks as evidence of cooking) in the middens of Paleolithic aboriginal cultures, and from eyewitness accounts of explorer-naturalists in more recent times is available from numerous locations around the world (e.g., Bates, 1863; St. Cricq, 1874; Goode, 1967; Rhodin, 1992, 1995; Pritchard, 1994; Lee, 1996; Stiner et al., 1999). Skeletal evidence of river turtles, in particular from such locations as Mohenjodaro and Harappa in the Indus Valley (e.g., Indian narrow-headed softshells and river terrapins), Mayapan, and many other Mesoamerican Mayan sites (e.g., Central American river turtles), and Naga ed-Der of Upper Ancient Egypt (e.g., Nile softshell) suggest that river turtles have helped to support the rise of the world's great civilizations as well (de Treville, 1975; Nath, 1959 in Groombridge & Wright, 1982; Das, 1991; Lee, 1996). Their role continues and, in fact, has expanded as human populations have burgeoned and spread throughout the modern world. River turtles have always been too convenient and succulent a source of protein to ignore. Often large, fecund, and easily collected with simple techniques and equipment, especially in communal nesters which may concentrate at nesting sites in helpless thousands (at least formerly), river turtles are ideal prey. Much of the harvesting has been, and continues to be, conducted in relative obscurity in many parts of the world. Occasionally, however, the sheer magnitude of the resource and its slaughter has attracted the attention of literate observers, such as the early explorer-naturalists of the New and Old World tropics. Their accounts have given us some idea of the former truly spectacular abundance of some riverine species, and the equally spectacular levels of consistent exploitation which have brought them to their modern, much-diminished condition. Summaries of the exploitation of the two best documented examples of destruction of formerly abundant riverine species, the Asian river terrapin, and the giant South American river turtle, are provided under their appropriate geographic sections below.

Systematics of reptile-associated scale mites of the genus Pterygosoma (Acariformes: Pterygosomatidae) derived from external morphology

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4603 (3) ◽  
pp. 401
Author(s):  
MONIKA FAJFER
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
New Genus ◽  
Arabian Peninsula ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Mite Species ◽  
South American ◽  
The Family ◽  
Outgroup Species ◽  
Tree Lizards ◽  
Species Groups

The phylogeny of the mite genus Pterygosoma Peters, 1849 (Acariformes: Pterygosomatidae), permanent parasites of lizards of the families Agamidae, Gerrhosauridae and Liolaemidae (Reptilia: Squamata), was inferred with maximum parsimony, successive weighting and implied weighting approaches based on 182 characters of 48 ingroup and 12 outgroup species. All undertaken analyses questioned the monophyly of the genus. Based on this research, Pterygosoma includes 56 mite species associated with agamas from Africa and Asia (Sauria: Agamidae). Within the genus seven natural species groups were found: mutabilis, inermis, melanum, caucasica, fimbriata, singularis and foliosetis; 13 species of the genus were not assigned to any of the groups due to their unique morphological characters. For the ligare group of the subgenus Pterygosoma s. str. (7 species) associated with the South American tree lizards from the family Liolaemidae, a new genus, Neopterygosoma gen. nov., is established. The subgenus Gerrhosaurobia Lawrence, 1959 (3 species) associated with the African plated lizards of the family Gerrhosauridae is elevated to the genus rank. Diagnoses for the three genera are presented. Historical associations are reconstructed by fitting the obtained mite tree into the host topology on the family level. Results of coevolutionary analysis highlight the coincidence of both trees. The studies suggest that the ancestor of the genus Pterygosoma switched from the hosts of Gerrhosaurobia i.e. from the plated lizards (Gerrhosauridae) to the agamas (Agamidae), and the genus Pterygosoma has its biogeographic origin in North Africa, and colonized Asia via the Arabian Peninsula, which is congruent with the historical biogeography of its hosts.

scholarly journals New Insights into the Distribution, Physiology and Life Histories of South American Galaxiid Fishes, and Potential Threats to This Unique Fauna

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Enrique Cussac ◽  
María Eugenia Barrantes ◽  
Claudia Clementina Boy ◽  
Konrad Górski ◽  
Evelyn Habit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Fish Fauna ◽  
South American ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Neotropical Fishes ◽  
Key Species ◽  
The Family ◽  
Total Fish ◽  
Temperate Fish ◽  
Lamprey Species

South American galaxiids occupy both Patagonia and the ichthyogeographic Chilean Province, encompassing glacial Andean deep lakes, shallow plateau lakes, reservoirs, short Pacific rivers and long Atlantic rivers. The total fish fauna includes 29 species, comprising Neotropical fishes (siluriforms and characids), galaxiids, percichthyids, atherinopsids and mugilids, two lamprey species, and several exotic fishes (salmonids, Gambusia spp. and common carp). The family Galaxiidae shares a common ancestry with the Gondwanan temperate fish fauna, played a major role in the post-glacial colonization of Andean lakes and streams, and contributes key species to the food webs. Galaxiid species occupy an enormous latitudinal gradient, show a wide variety of life history patterns and are the southernmost native freshwater fishes of the world. Knowledge of South American galaxiids has improved notably, but new challenges arise due to climate change, biological invasions, damming, aquaculture and contamination. In this changing environment, the future of South American galaxiids should be carefully considered as a legacy of the old Gondwana and a unique attribute of the freshwaters of southern South America.

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