Fish Systematics:

How does this stuff work??

Study of fish diversity and the
evolutionary relationships among
populations, species and higher taxa
Chapter 2
(Helfman, Collette & Facey)

Why Systematics?

Organization
Basis for identification
Discrimination
Understanding relationships
Common language!

Systematics
Understand patterns of diversity
How? ...in the context of evolutionary
and ecological theory.
trends in where fish groups are found
(spatial distribution)
trends in emergence/extinction of
evolutionary groups

Systematics
Sample questions:

What has favored/allowed greater diversity of

fishes on coral reefs than in lakes?
What has allowed/favored cypriniforms,
siluriforms and characiforms to become so
diverse?
What factors have allowed/favored the
persistence of ancient taxa in the Mississippi
River basin (bowfin, gar, paddlefish, etc.)?
What is the evolutionary (phylogenetic)
relationship between salmon and pike?

Subdisciplines in Systematics
Taxonomy - the theory and practice of
describing, identifying and classifying taxa
(groups of phylogenetically related organisms)
Taxonomy can be predictive!!

Nomenclature - the naming of taxonomic

groups
Classification - organizing taxa into like
groupings

What is a Species?
C. Tate. Regan (1926) (20th Century)
A community, or a number of
related communities whose
distinctive morphological characters
are, in the opinion of a competent
systematist, sufficiently definite to
entitle it, or them to a specific
name.

Focus of Systematics on Species

Historically, understanding species*
most common:

*group of organisms that can reproduce and

generate viable offspring

Today, emphasis is below species level

(why?)
Endangered Species Act:

applies to distinct population segment of a

species which interbreeds when mature

Species Concepts
Morphological (Linnaeus): the
smallest group of individuals that
look different from each other.
can misclassify based on differences
that can be maintained within an
interbreeding group
depends only on observable
morphological differences

inbreeding

Species Concepts
Biological (Mayr): group of populations
of individuals that are similar in form
and function and that are reproductively
isolated from other populations
conventional definition until late 1980s
includes genetic information
ignores hybridization
dependent on geographic isolation to
achieve species status

Species Concepts
Evolutionary (Wiley): a population or
group of populations that shares a
common evolutionary fate and historical
tendencies
recognizes more than just genetic and
morphological differences
difficult to determine evolutionary fate
how much diversity is allowed within a
common evolutionary fate?
Nelson 1999 Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries

Species Concepts
Phylogenetic: the smallest biological
unit appropriate for phylogenetic
analysis (process that rates traits as
ancestral (plesiomorphes) or derived
(apomorphies) and then looks for
groupings based on similarities (shared)
depends on thorough phylogenetic analysis

Species Concepts
Usefulness of each concept depends
on the use - for Endangered Species
Act, use as much evidence as possible:
morphological, physiological, behavioral
geographic
life history & development
habitat & feeding ecology
phylogenetics
evolutionary fate

Determining Relationships
Between Taxa
Traditional: examine and list primitive
to advanced, link groups based on a
few arbitrary traits, generate lineage
model based on these limited data

Determining Relationships
Between Taxa
Phylogenetic (cladistic):
assemble a list of traits
classify each taxonomic group on basis
of presence or absence of each trait
determine degree of similarity among
groups based on shared and unique
traits:

Determining Relationships
Between Taxa
Phylogenetic (cladistic), continued:
determine degree of similarity among
groups based on shared and unique traits:
1. shared traits = plesiomorphic traits
(ancestral)
2. unique traits = apomorphic traits (derived)
3. shared unique traits = synapomorphic traits
(group of 2 or more taxa derived from evolution
from common ancestor)

monophyletic group of taxa (common origin)

= clade

Cladograms
Phylogenetic relationships expressed
in cladograms - branching
representation of the evolutionary
relationships among taxa based on
shared common traits and shared
unique traits

Constructing a Cladogram
Listing of traits
Coding of each taxon by presence/absence of
each trait
Assemble groupings based on trait conditions
Use the simplest branching structure
possible: principle of parsimony

More on traits...
Meritic-count it!
Morphometric-measurable shape
fin length
eye shape
head length
ratios between such measures...
anatomical characteristics
molecular characteristics

Which traits do I use?

Speciation
How do populations become distinct
species? - the process whereby gene
flow is reduced sufficiently between
sister populations to allow each to
become different evolutionary
lineages
Allopatric (with geographic isolation)
Non-allopatric (without geographic
isolation)

Speciation
Allopatric (with geographic isolation)
speciation:
Vicariant - large populations
geographically isolated (little inbreeding)
(United States)
Founder - small population becomes
geographically isolated and then
reproductively isolated via inbreeding,
selection, drift (Gilligans Island)
Reinforcement - early isolation followed by
sympatry, (other species came but show now
aggression) but selection against hybrids

Speciation
Non-allopatric (without geographic
isolation)
Sympatric - sister species evolve within
the dispersal range of each other, but
adapt to different habitats - habitatdependent assortive mating (tribes)
Parapatric - sister species evolve in
segregated habitats across a narrow
contact zone - little mixing in spite of
proximity

Final synthesis on species

Groupings that are different from
each other:
morphology, behavior, physiology,
ecology

Reproduction is isolated in practice

Mating systems and materecognition systems are important
enforcers of isolation