Evolutionary origins of the lampriform pelagic radiation

Abstract

Ray-finned fishes, which compose nearly half of living vertebrate diversity, provide an excellent system for studying the evolution of novel body forms. Lampriformes is a species-poor lineage of acanthomorph ray-finned fishes that has evolved two very different and highly specialized body plans suited to life in pelagic oceanic habitats: the deep, round-bodied bathysomes and the ribbon-like taeniosomes. Here, we present a new phylogenetic hypothesis and divergence time estimates for lampriform fishes based on an updated morphological dataset and DNA sequences from nuclear genes for all but one of the living lampriform families and 55% of recognized extant genera. Our analyses resolve two major clades in Lampriformes: the Bathysomi and the Taeniosomi. A time calibrated phylogeny shows that the origin of living lampriforms coincides with the aftermath of the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction and that anatomically modern pelagic morphotypes evolved 10 Myr after the start of the Palaeogene.