The paper
M.N.L. Pastana et al., “Comprehensive phenotypic phylogenetic analysis supports the monophyly of stromateiform fishes (Teleostei: Percomorphacea),” Zool J Linnean Soc, doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab058, 2021.
Fishes such as driftfishes, butterfishes, and barrelfishes—traditionally grouped as medusafishes (suborder Stromateoidei)—share a gizzard-like “pharyngeal sac” lined with tooth-like projections that grind up food. But despite their shared morphology, recent molecular studies have placed them into multiple groups rather than one evolutionary lineage. “Conflicts between morphology and DNA-based hypotheses are particularly striking for this group, and their resolution represents one of the biggest challenges of the systematics of bony fishes,” says Murilo Pastana, an ichthyologist at the National Museum of Natural History.
To determine whether the 15 genera of medusafishes are in fact closely related, Pastana and his colleagues conducted the largest morphological study of the group to date, examining more than 200 characteristics. Through dissection, staining, and imaging, they detailed the internal and external structures of ...
