Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the Neotropical cichlid fish tribe Cichlasomatini (Teleostei: Cichlidae: Cichlasomatinae)

Abstract

We have conducted the first comprehensive molecular phylogeny of the tribe Cichlasomatini including all valid genera as well as important species of questionable generic status. To recover the relationships among cichlasomatine genera and to test their monophyly we analyzed sequences from two mitochondrial (16S rRNA, cytochrome b) and one nuclear marker (first intron of S7 ribosomal gene) totalling 2236 bp.

Our data suggest that all genera except Aequidens are monophyletic, but we found important disagreements between the traditional morphological relationships and the phylogeny based on our molecular data. Our analyses support the following conclusions: (a) Aequidens sensu stricto is paraphyletic, NOT COMPLETE!!!

Keywords

• Molecular phylogeny
• Cichlids
• Cichlidae
• Cichlasomatini
• South America
• Biogeography
• Penalized likelihood
• Partitioned Bremer support
• Cytochrome b
• 16S rRNA
• S7
• DIVA
• Vicariance
• Dispersal