A functional approach to the phylogeny of the pharyngognath teleosts

Abstract

SYNOPSIS. Functional morphological analysis has revealed the existence of three functionally and morphologically different mechanisms underlying the tongue-parasphenoid and pharyngeal-parasphenoid bites in advanced teleost fishes. The bite is specialized differently in Pristolepis and the Anabantoidei, and in a primitive condition in both the Nandidae andChanniformes. These taxa belong to at least three unrelated lineages and do not share a commonancestry as was previously postulated. It has been possible to show how an originally primitive character can acquire a new biological and phylogenetic meaning by being integrated into a specialized functional complex. Based on functional data on the pharyngeal jaw apparatus, a new hypothesis is proposed stating that the Cichlidae, Embiotocidae, Labridae, Odacidae and Scaridae represent a monophyletic assemblage. This case study has demonstrated that reciprocal illumination of functional morphological and phylogenetic findings can lead to: (1) better tested and more precise phylogenetic hypotheses; (2) the construction of new hypotheses on the basis of specialized character complexes which were unrecognized by the use of a purely descriptive morphological approach © 1981 by the American Society of Zoologists.