A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Percidae Using Osteology

The present phylogenetic analysis found percids to be divided into five subfamilies based on 49 informative osteological characters, with the subfamily Percinae (genus Perca) the most primitive form within the family. The remaining four subfamilies contain the following genera: Acerinae (Gymnocephalus), Percarinae (Percarina), Luciopercinae (Stizostedion, Romanichthys, and Zingel), and Etheostominae (Ammocrypta, Percina, and Etheostoma). Luciopercinae is divided into two tribes, Luciopercini (Stizostedion) and Romanichthyini (Romanichthys, Zingel). 18 outgroups were used to polarize the characters for the 28 percid species examined. I compare my results with two recent publications, Smith and Craig (2007) and Whitlock (2010). Smith and Craig (2007) tried to find the relationships of the serranid and percid fishes among the Percomorpha using a combination of RNA and nuclear DNA molecular data sequenced from 180 species. Whitlock (2010) used 73 osteological and 4 integumentary characters to determine phylogenetic relationships of 27 species of percomorph fishes.