Niphon spinosus: A Primitive Epinepheline Serranid, with Comments on the Monophyly and Intrarelationships of the Serranidae

Abstract

Three reductive specializations (absence of the posterior uroneural, procurrent spur and third preural radial cartilages) define the percoid family Serranidae with respect to the ostensibly polyphyletic Percichthyidae (sensu Gosline, 1966). A single innovative specialization, the presence of three spines on the opercle, indicates that the Serranidae are monophyletic. All members of the serranid subfamily Epinephelinae, comprising five tribes, share a unique modification of the first dorsal pterygiophore, seemingly a specialization for support of the elongate dorsal spine of the larvae. The enigmatic Niphon spinosus, placed in the Percichthyidae by Gosline (1966), and in the Centropomidae by Rivas and Cook (1968), shares the epinepheline specialization, as well as the four specializations that characterize the Serranidae. It is hypothesized that the monotypic Niphon is the sister group of all other epinephelines. Identification of the larva of Niphon could provide corroborative evidence for this hypothesis.

Rainfordia opercularis, a liopropomin serranid (Teleostei: Serranidae: Epinephelinae): corroborative evidence from settlement-stage larvae

“…He included Rainfordia in the Serranidae based on those features, and the familial placement of Rainfordia is not in question. Johnson (1983) did not identify any larval characters that diagnose the Serranidae, but we note that the settlement-stage larvae of Rainfordia have three opercular spines. The classification of Rainfordia in the Epinephelinae also is well supported, as Rainfordia has the diagnostic features of that subfamily: absence of an autogenous distal radial on the first dorsal-fin pterygiophore (Johnson, 1983) and the presence of only two supraneurals (Kendall, 1976).…”

“…Heemstra and Randall (1993) recognized three tribes in their Grammistinae: Diploprionini, Liopropomini, and Grammistini (including Pseudogramma and relatives). Those classifications do not conflict with the phylogenetic relationships proposed by Baldwin and Johnson (1993), but they do not reflect the monophyly of Johnson's (1983) subfamily Epinephelinae, and the Randall et al (1990) Fig. 1.…”

“…•Johnson (1983) diagnosed the Serranidae on the basis of several reductive internal features and one innovative specialization, the presence of three spines on the opérele. He included Rainfordia in the Serranidae based on those features, and the familial placement of Rainfordia is not in question.…”

“…Randall et al (1971) excluded Rainfordia from their Grammistidae (Aulacocephalus, Diploprion, Graniniistes, Grammistops, Pogonoperca, Rypticus, and Belonoperca, the last added to the family by Randall et al, 1980). Kendall (1976) recognized osteological similarities between Rainfordia and Liopropoma, and Johnson (1983) placed Rainfordia in his epinepheline-serranid tribe Liopropomini (which also included Jeboehlkia, Liopropoma, and Pikea). Baldwin and Johnson (1993) redefined the Liopropomini to include Liopropoma, Rainfordia, and, possibly, Bathyanthias, but not Jeboehlkia, which they assigned to the epinepheline tribe Grammistini.…”

“…Larvae of Rainfordia were not known at the time. Randall et al (1990) and Heemstra and Randall (1993) recognized a serranid subfamily Grammistinae, equivalent in rank with a subfamily Epinephelinae [Johnson's (1983) tribe Epinephelini], subfamily Niphoninae (tribe Niphonini), subfamily Anthiinae, and subfamily Serraninae. Randall et al (1990) assigned four tribes to their Grammistinae: Liopropomini, including Rainfordia, Diploprioni [sic], Grammistini, and Pseudogrammini.…”