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 Lophi...

深海演化所带来的宏观演化后果迄今仍未得到充分阐明，而生物为适应深海环境演化出的趋同适应，进一步增加了阐明系统发育关系（phylogenetic relationships）的难度。𩽾𩾌目（Lophiiformes）鱼类兼具极端的栖息特化与捕食特化，包括将鳍棘系统用作诱捕器官，以及寄生雄鱼附着并融合于雌鱼体内的独特繁殖策略。尽管这类鱼类因这些奇特特征而声名远播，但它们之间的演化关系仍未明晰。本研究利用1000个超保守元件（ultraconserved elements）的数据与系统发育组学推断（phylogenomic inference）方法，旨在厘清𩽾𩾌目的演化历史，研究重点聚焦于角鮟鱇亚目（Ceratioidei，深海𩽾𩾌）与躄鱼亚目（Antennarioidei，躄鱼与手鳍鱼）。在亚目层级的分析中，我们通过独立的系统发育组学分析得到了相似的拓扑结构：𩽾𩾌亚目（Lophioidei，𩽾𩾌）为其余𩽾𩾌目类群的姊妹群，且