Evolutionary relationships of anglerfishes (Lophiiformes) reconstructed using ultraconserved elements

The macroevolutionary consequences of evolving in the deep-sea remain
poorly understood and are compounded by the fact that convergent
adaptations for living in this environment makes elucidating phylogenetic
relationships difficult. Lophiiform anglerfishes exhibit extreme habitat
and predatory specializations, including the use of a fin-spine system as
a luring device and unique reproductive strategies where parasitic males
attach and fuse to females. Despite their notoriety for these odd
characteristics, evolutionary relationships among these fishes remain
unclear. We sought to clarify the evolutionary history of Lophiiformes
using data from 1,000 ultraconserved elements and phylogenomic inference
methods with particular interest paid to the Ceratioidei (deep-sea
anglerfishes) and Antennarioidei (frogfishes and handfishes). At the
suborder level, we recovered similar topologies in separate phylogenomic
analyses: The Lophioidei (monkfishes) are the sister group to the rest of
the Lophiiformes, Ogcocephaloidei (batfishes) and Antennarioidei
(frogfishes) form a sister group, and Chaunacioidei (coffinfishes) and
Ceratioidei (deep-sea anglerfishes) form a clade. The relationships we
recover within the ceratioids disagree with most previous phylogenetic
investigations, which used legacy phylogenetic markers or morphology. We
recovered non-monophyletic relationships in the Antennarioidei and
proposed three new families based on molecular and morphological evidence:
Histiophrynidae, Rhycheridae, and Tathicarpidae. Antennariidae was
re-evaluated to include what was known as Antennariinae, but not
Histiophryninae. Non-bifurcating signal in splits network analysis
indicated reticulations among and within suborders, supporting the
complicated history of the Lophiiformes previously found with
morphological data. Although we resolve relationships within
Antennarioidei, Ceratioidei relationships remain somewhat unclear without
better taxonomic sampling.