628 



ONTOGENY AND SYSTEMATICS OF FISHES-AHLSTROM SYMPOSIUM 



Out-Groups Amarsipidae 



C e n t r o I o p h i d a e 



Ariommidae 

 Tetragonuridae 



^® 



» . .o^ •;;?>' -c*' 



.<f 



/ / / / / / / / r / 



Nomeidae 



S t r m a t e i d a e 



^ r /' J"' ./ ./ y y / '^ 



# / /" /" ^i-- v^" ,.'• /■ ,»"' 



Fig. 335. Phylogenetic hypothesis of relationships among the genera of stromateoid fishes. The perciform famihes Scorpididae, Girellidae and 

 Kyphosidae are out-groups. Each number represents a character and each honzontal bar represents a character state indicating a synapomorphy 

 or autapomorphy. Character transformation series 1-27 are shown in Table 165. Relationships of the stromateoid families as perceived by 

 Haedrich (1967) are shown, with addition of the Amarsipidae, in the lower right. Limits of the six stromateoid families as recognized by Haedrich 

 and Horn (1972) are shown at the top of the cladogram. 



pididae, Girellidae, Kuhliidae, Kyphosidae, Pomatomidae, 

 ScoiTJididae and Theraponidae. All are Pattern- 10 teleosts in 

 terms of the ramus lateralis accessorius (a facial nerve complex) 

 and have a bony bridge over the anterior vertical canal of the 

 ear. Of these families, the Kyphosidae bear a strong resemblance 

 to the Centrolophidae, the most primitive stromateoids. Hae- 

 drich (1967) implicitly favored the hypothesis that the kyphos- 

 ids are the closest perciform relatives of the most primitive 

 stromateoids pointing out that both have 10+15 vertebrae, a 

 caudal skeleton with six hypural and three epural elements (ac- 

 tually five hypurals in kyphosids), a perforate ceratohyal, seven 

 branchiostegals, an expanded lacrimal bone and scaled fin bases. 

 The present analysis (Fig. 335) supports this hypothesis. 

 Ontogenetic characters have not been used previously in ana- 



lyzing the relationships of stromateoids to other perciform groups. 

 Use of the two juvenile characters in the present analysis did 

 not alter the phylogeny based on adult characters. Although they 

 were not examined in the present study, kyphosid larvae arc 

 more generalized than girellid or scorpidid larvae and, therefore, 

 more similar to stromateoid larvae (G. D. Johnson, pers. com- 

 mun.). The generalized nature of stromateoid larvae suggests 

 that their characters will continue to be most useful in distin- 

 guishing species (e.g.. Ditty and Truesdale, 1983) and less valu- 

 able at higher levels of classification. 



Department of Biological Science, California State 

 University, Fullerton, California 92634. 



