Re: [RML] RE: Re: M. herbertaxelrodi/trifasciata

Cary Hostrawser (caryho at ix.netcom.com)
Sun, 15 Dec 1996 14:40:12 GMT

On Sat, 14 Dec 1996 22:25:15 -0700 (MST), peter.unmack at ASU.Edu wrote:
>More for info than anything else. This paper reverses some of the
>classification thinking of the past. Past work has tended to look from
>the bottom up, ie from species to genera to subfamily to family etc.
>This study more looked from the top down, ie series, order, suborder,
>infraorder, superfamily, family, subfamily and tribe.
>
>Dyer & Chernoff. 1996. Phylogenetic relationships among atheriniform
>fishes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 117:1-69.
>
>This is in no particular order. This will probably get all screwed up on
>some folks email programs, sorry.
>
>Melanotaeniidae|-Melanotaeniinae--------------------------|-Melanotaenia
>(Family) | (subfamily) |-Glossolepis
> | |-etc etc
> |
> |-Pseudomugilinae-|-Pseudomugilini (Tribe)-|-Pseudomugil
> | | |-Kiunga
> | | |-Scaturiginichthys
> | |
> | |-Telmatherinini (Tribe)-|-Kalyptatherina
> | |-Paratherina
> | |-Telmatherina
> | |-Tominanga
> |
> |-Bedotiinae-------------------------------|-Bedotia
> |-Rheocles
>
>No doubt this will change later as these things always seem to. I know
>Dr Ivantsoff's lab will be in disagreeance with it. :-) A
>couple of quotes from the text. "Relationships among the melanotaeniids
>are only tentative, but they do indicate that pseudomugilins and
>telmatherins are sister groups. The relevance of this phylogenetic
>hypothesis to the biogeographic history of the Indo-West Pacific region
>is significant because Melanotaeniidae is a monophyletic group of
>primarily freshwater fishes."

Just a question to maintain clarity Peter
Does the Melanotaeniinae subfamily consist the following genera?
Cairnsichthys
Chilatherina
Iriatherina
Glossolepis
Melanotaenia
Rhandinocentrus

>From a layman's point of view the Iriatherina has never seemed to have
much in common with those other genera. So I was wondering if they
didn't mess around with its classification.

Cary Hostrawser

Minnesota Aquarium Society
http://www.mn-aquarium.org/

Rainbowfish Study Group of North America
http://home.earthlink.net/~sbuckel/index.html