of auchenipterids. The conclusions of Curran (1989) are highly problematic. Four 

 of the characters that he used to unite auchenipterids with doradids are also present 

 in ageneiosids: epioccipital bones contributing to the roof of the skull; ligamentous 

 attachments of the ESA to the anterior wall of the swimbladder; presence of a 

 postcleithral process (secondarily lost in most ageneiosids, but present in 

 Tetranematichthys andv4. brevis); and unique arrangement of the dorsal fin. The 

 other synapomorphy cited by Quran was the presence of three nuchal plates; this 

 condition is shared only by doradids and auchenipterids, but it may be primitive for 

 doradoids, with ageneiosids having reduced the number of plates secondarily (see 

 anatomical discussion of dorsal fin, and Royero [1987]). Curran's discussion of the 

 last alleged synapomorphy, reduced neural spines and dorsal-fin proximal radials ( = 

 pterygiophores), is especially perplexing; he partly defined doradids and 

 auchenipterids by this character, but he further spUt the character into two states 

 that define separate lineages within the Auchenipteridae, one clade of which has 

 expanded neural spines. In addition to the above problems, two of the three 

 characters used by Curran (1989) to define monophyly of the Auchenipteridae are 

 also shared with ageneiosids; a posterior process of the epioccipital, and a 

 gonopodium, which he further divided into five character states. There are 

 additional problems with some of the characters in Curran's (1989) analysis, lending 

 me to question the credulity of his hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships among 

 the auchenipterid genera. < -^ •:"^ jj^ 



Despite conflicts among conclusions of the above authors (e.g., Howes 1983 

 and Curran 1989), there is overwhelming evidence that the Auchenipteridae {sensu 

 lato) and the Ageneiosidae are sister taxa, and that, together, they form a sister 

 group to the Doradidae, Relationships above the family level remain completely 

 unresolved, as is the case with many other groups of catfishes. The most significant 



