Data from: Explosion of goby fish diversity at the Eocene-Oligocene transition

A rapid drop of sea level at the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT;
34–33 Ma) triggered a marine mass extinction event and the turnover of
terrestrial fauna, but its influence on the diversification of nearshore
marine fish communities is unclear. Goby fishes
(Acanthomorpha: Percomorpha: Gobiiformes) provide an
ideal system to investigate the hypothesis that ecological opportunity at
the EOT triggered the proliferation of coastal marine fishes. However,
despite more than 30 years of molecular evolutionary research, divergence
time estimates for gobies are widely variable, incomplete with respect to
sampling of taxonomic families and sub-familial lineages, and far older
than evident by the modest fossil record. Here we use 1,314 ultraconserved
element (UCE) sequences sampled from 121 species, including all gobiiform
families and sub-familial goby lineages, to infer phylogeny and node ages
under species tree and relaxed molecular clock models. Our time-calibrated
phylogenomic hypothesis reconciles molecular clock- and fossil-based
estimates for gobiiform diversification, dating the origin
of Apogonidae and Gobioidei to the uppermost
Late Cretaceous, with lower to middle Paleogene divergence of the gobioid
backbone and an explosion of goby lineages at the EOT. Our results support
a remarkably recent evolutionary origin of goby families and stimulate new
questions on the seemingly exceptional diversity of the group.