Phylogeny of Toxotidae

In this study, we first investigate the limits of archerfish species using new and previously published genetic data. Our analyses highlight that the current taxonomy of archerfishes does not conform to the relationships we recover. Two species of Toxotes are placed in synonymy of T. chatareus, Toxotes carpentariensis is recognized as a species and removed from synonymy of T. chatareus, and the genus Protoxotes is recognized for T. lorentzi based on the results of our analyses and it recovered as the sister group to all other species of archerfishes. We then take an integrative approach, using a combined analysis of discrete hard- and soft-tissue morphological characters with genetic data, to construct a phylogeny of the Toxotidae. Using the resulting phylogenetic hypothesis, we then characterize the evolutionary history and anatomical variation within the archerfishes. We discuss the variation present within these oral structures and the evolution of the mechanism with respect to the interrelationships of archerfishes. We find that the oral structures of archerfishes support the blowpipe hypothesis of how these fishes shoot water. Finally, by comparing the oral osteology of archerfishes to their sister group, we also find that the Leptobramidae has two of the three most relevant shooting features within the oral cavity, suggesting that some components of the archerfish shooting mechanism are examples of co-opted or exapted traits.