Comparative Study on the Skeletal System of Five Species of the Family Epinephelidae(Perciformes)in the Coastal Waters of the Northern South China Sea
In order to reveal the application potential of skeletal system in the study of species identification and phylogenetic relationship of the family Epinephelidae(Perciformes),the traditional skeletal system com-parison method was used to analyze the skeletal characteristics of five fish species within Epinephelidae sam-pled from the nearshore of the northern South China Sea,including Cephalopholis urodeta,Triso dermopter-us,Epinephelus awoara,E.fasciatomaculosus,and E.craigi.The results showed that among the 15 kinds of bone fragments analyzed,7 kinds of bone fragments,such as ethmoid,frontal,sphenotic,supraoccipital,preo-percular,supracleithrum,and urohyal bones,showed obvious genus characteristics.The morphological struc-ture of the bone fragments of C.urodetawas was generally simple.However,the skeletal morphological structures of the bone fragments of T.dermopterus and Epinephelus were more differentiated and complex,and the two had the largest number of similar types of bone fragments(8 species).There were 10 kinds of bone fragments that could effectively distinguish E.craigi from E.awoara and E.fasciatomaculosus.Among them,5 kinds of bone fragments,such as alisphenoid,sphenotic,pterotic,supraoccipital and preoper-cular,showed significant species characteristics in E.craigi.The main skeletal differences between E.awoara and E.fasciatomaculosus were the frontal,preopercular,and supracleithrum.The results of this study support the conclusion that Triso has a close phylogenetic relationship with Epinephelus and Cephalo-pholis is a more primitive independent group than Epinephelus.At the same time,this study provides impor-tant skeletal evidence for the species effectiveness of E.craigi,and also clarifies the differences between the two closely related species of E.awoara and E.fasciatomaculosus.This study indicates that the skeletal sys-tem can be used as an important research tool for species identifying and elucidating the phylogenetic rela-tionships of the family Epinephelidae.
nearshore of the northern South China SeaEpinephelidaeskeletal comparisonspecies identifica-tionphylogeny
万方数据
维普
