-.V ... ::'xv'' -".- \-/,-.rV'". • ■ ' ' < 150 



strong development of the epiotics (= epioccipitals) at the rear of the skull, with 

 expanded posterior processes; the presence of an elastic spring apparatus; absence 

 of nasal barbels; absence of a mesocoracoid; fusion of seven or eight vertebrae in 

 the complex centrum; and, associated modifications of the vertebral parapophyses 

 and swimbladder (after Bridge and Haddon 1894). These characters, especially the 

 first, have been repeated by nearly all subsequent authors when diagnosing the 

 doradoid families. 



Subsequent to Regan's classification, a number of authors, beginning with 

 Chardon (1968), proposed relationships between several families based principally 

 on the shared possession of an elastic spring apparatus (ESA; see anatomical 

 description of the Weberian apparatus and axial skeleton). Chardon (1968) lumped 

 the African family Mochokidae with the Doradidae, Auchenipteridae, and 

 Ageneiosidae, into a large superfamily, the Doradoidae [sic]. As discussed in the 

 introduction, and as has been used throughout this text, I follow Ferraris (1988) in 

 restricting the superfamily name Doradoidea to mclude only the neotropical 

 families. 



Howes (1983: fig. 22) included the families Ariidae, Auchenipteridae, 

 Doradidae, Mochokidae, Malapteruridae, and Pangasiidae into a single clade, based 

 on the shared ESA and a relatively large, free swimbladder; he included ageneiosids 

 in a lineage with loricariids and astroblepids, based on the shared presence of an 

 encapsulated swimbladder. Howes' (1983) placement of the ageneiosids with the 

 loricarioids is certainly the most extreme sister-group relationship that has ever 

 been proposed for ageneiosids, although it is not clear that he was seriously 

 suggesting such a relationship. In some other respects, Howes' (1983) cladogram is 

 incongruent with certain widely accepted phylogenies; for example, he included the 

 callichthyids in a separate Uneage apart from the remaining loricarioids (see Baskin 

 [1972] and Schaeffer [1987] for corroborative hypotheses of loricarioid 



