The dawn of phylogenetic research on Neotropical fishes: a commentary and introduction to Baskin (1973), with an overview of past progress on trichomycterid phylogenetics

Abstract

A review is made of the impact of the landmark Ph. D. Thesis of Jonathan N. Baskin from 1973 on the development of the phylogenetics of catfishes and some of its main subgroups and on neotropical ichthyology in general. Baskin's work is the first to propose a hypothesis of relationships for loricarioid catfishes and for the family Trichomycteridae on the basis of explicit Hennigian principles. It is arguably also the first application of phylogenetic methods to any group of neotropical fishes. The hypotheses presented by Baskin covered the monophyly of Siluriformes, the monophyly and relationships of loricarioid families and the relationships of Trichomycteridae (including the monophyly of the family and the relationships among its constituent genera). His discoveries are analyzed in view of the subsequent 40-odd years of progress on the understanding of the phylogeny of the respective groups. The ideas proposed in 1973 have resisted the test of time remarkably well, and a majority of them have been corroborated by additional characters and taxa (including molecular data and several taxa newly discovered in the meantime), as well as by modern quantitative analysis.Um ensaio é realizado sobre o impacto da tese de doutorado pioneira de 1973 de Jonathan N. Baskin no desenvolvimento do conhecimento filogenético de Siluriformes e alguns dos seus principais subgrupos e na ictiologia neotropical em geral. O trabalho de Baskin é o primeiro a propor uma hipótese de relações para os bagres loricarioides e para a família Trichomycteridae com base em princípios Hennigianos explícitos. Provavelmente é também a primeira implementação de métodos filogenéticos em qualquer grupo de peixes de água doce neotropicais. As hipóteses apresentadas por Baskin cobrem o monofiletismo de Siluriformes, o monofiletismo e as relações filogenéticas das famílias de Loricarioidea, e as relações filogenéticas de Trichomycteridae (incluindo o monofiletismo da família e as relações entre seus gêneros constituintes). Suas descobertas são analisadas à luz dos mais de 40 anos de progresso no entendimento da filogenia dos respectivos grupos. As ideias propostas em 1973 resistiram ao teste do tempo bastante bem e a maioria delas foi corroborada por caracteres ou táxons adicionais (incluindo dados moleculares e muitos táxons descobertos no interim), assim como por análises quantitativas mais modernas.

Phylogenomic analysis of trichomycterid catfishes (Teleostei: Siluriformes) inferred from ultraconserved elements

“…Moreover, diagnoses and interrelationships among the putative basal-most genera of the Glanapteryginae and Sarcoglanidinae are particularly unstable and the limits of each subfamily are increasingly blurry 69 . For instance, new data suggest that Ammoglanis pulex is actually a glanapterygine, rather than a sarcoglanidine as originally described 70 . Allocation of newly discovered taxa (e.g., trichomycterid n. gen.) into one or another subfamily is often difficult and possibly arbitrary (pers.…”

Multigene phylogeny reveals convergent evolution in small interstitial catfishes from the Amazon and Atlantic forests (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae)

“…Baskin () developed the first phylogenetic analysis of trichomycterids as a Ph.D. dissertation, which was broadly used as a main reference in studies on the family relationships during the last 30 years (Costa & Bockmann, , ; DoNascimiento, ; Ferrer & Malabarba, ; de Pinna, , ; Schaefer et al, ), although formally published only in 2016 (de Pinna, ). In this study, Baskin () first proposed monophyly and relationships of trichomycterid subfamilies based on osteological and external morphology characters.…”

A new species of Trichomycterus Valenciennes 1832 (Trichomycteridae: Siluriformes) from the Rio Doce drainage with remarkable similarities with Bullockia and a CT‐scan survey

“…Putative synapomorphies have been proposed for the subfamily (Arratia, ; Datovo & Bockmann, ), but presumably derived conditions initially thought to be general were later found to be absent in some taxa (Datovo & Bockmann, ; Wosiacki, ) and many others remain non‐examined for the relevant features. So, controversy over the monophyly of the subfamily lingers (de Pinna, ). Molecular data have supported trichomycterine monophyly once the clade including T. hasemani , T. johnsoni and T. anhanga (now comprised in the recently‐described genus Potamoglanis ) is excluded, but again with some taxa missing from the analysis (Katz et al, ; Ochoa et al, ).…”