Healy Hamilton

Molecular phylogeny and patterns of diversification in syngnathid fishes.

The family Syngnathidae is a large and diverse clade of morphologically unique bony fishes, with 57 genera and 300 described species of seahorses, pipefishes, pipehorses, and seadragons. They primarily inhabit shallow coastal waters in temperate and tropical oceans, and are characterized by a fused jaw, male brooding, and extraordinary crypsis. Phylogenetic relationships within the Syngnathidae remain poorly resolved due to lack of generic taxon sampling, few diagnostic morphological characters, and limited molecular data. The phylogenetic placement of the threatened, commercially exploited seahorses remains a topic of intense interest, with conflicting topologies based on morphology and predominantly mitochondrial genetic data. In this study, we integrate eight nuclear and mitochondrial markers and 17 morphological characters to investigate the phylogenetic structure of the family Syngnathidae at the generic level. We include 91 syngnathid species representing 48 of the 57 recognized genera, all major ocean basins, and a broad array of temperate and tropical habitats including rocky and coral reefs, sand and silt, mangroves, seagrass beds, estuaries, and rivers. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of 5160bp from eight loci produced high congruence among alternate topologies, defining well-supported and sometimes novel clades. We present a hypothesis that confirms a deep phylogenetic split between lineages with trunk- or tail-brood pouch placement, and provides significant new insights into the morphological evolution and biogeography of this highly derived fish clade. Based on the fundamental division between lineages - the tail brooding Urophori and the trunk brooding Gastrophori - we propose a revision of Syngnathidae classification into only two subfamilies: the Nerophinae and the Syngnathinae. We find support for distinct principal clades within the trunk-brooders and tail-brooders, the latter of which include seahorses, seadragons, independent lineages of pipehorses, and clades that originated in southern Australia and the Western Atlantic. We suggest the seahorse genus Hippocampus is of Indo-Pacific origin and its sister clade is an unexpected grouping of several morphologically disparate Indo-Pacific genera, including the Pacific pygmy pipehorses. Taxonomic revision is required for multiple genera, particularly to reflect deep evolutionary splits in nominal lineages from the Atlantic versus the Indo-Pacific.

Hippocampus japapigu, a new species of pygmy seahorse from Japan, with a redescription of H. pontohi (Teleostei, Syngnathidae)

Abstract The pygmy seahorse Hippocampusjapapigusp. n. is described based on three specimens, 13.9–16.3 mm SL, collected from a mixed soft coral and algae reef at 11 m depth at Hachijo-jima Island, Izu Islands, Japan. The new taxon shares morphological synapomorphies with the previously described central Indo-Pacific pygmy seahorses, H.colemani, H.pontohi, H.satomiae, and H.waleananus, including extremely small size, 12 trunk rings, strongly raised continuous cleithral ring, snout spine, large spine on the eighth lateral and fifth and 12 superior trunk ridges, respectively, and unusual wing-like-protrusions immediately posterior to the head. Hippocampusjapapigusp. n. can be distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of features in the anterodorsal area of the trunk: bilaterally paired wing-like protrusions formed by a single pair of large, truncate spines projecting dorsolaterad on the first superior trunk ridge, followed by a unique elevated dorsal ridge formed by triangular bony mounds dorsally on the second to fourth superior trunk ridges. In contrast, H.pontohi possesses a pair of large truncate spines projecting strongly laterad on both the first and second superior trunk ridges followed by flat surfaces dorsally on the third and fourth superior trunk rings. The new species can be further differentiated by genetic divergence from H.pontohi (an uncorrected p-distance of 10.1% in the mitochondrial COI gene) and a striking reticulated white and brown lattice pattern on the head, trunk, and tail. Hippocampusjapapigusp. n. represents the fifth species of pygmy seahorse recorded in Japan.