Abstract
Eighty-seven species of miniature Characiformes, those not surpassing 26 mm of standard length, are listed. Miniature species are commonly associated to reductive morphological characters, such as bone absences and simplifications, probably due to heterochronic processes involved in the evolution of miniaturization. Paedomorphosis may be the best interpretation to those morphological, but this can only be corroborated by ontogenetic studies. In general, miniature fish fauna is underexploited and poorly known. There are several undescribed species and others with taxonomical problems, including some threatened species from São Paulo State. Furthermore, there are no studies on habitat and distribution of such fishes. The lack of knowledge of such diverse and unexplored fauna is the reason of this project that encompasses three components to contemplate the various aspects to be investigated: evolutionary, taxonomic and biogeographic. The first aims to elucidate the processes that lead to the evolution of small-sized lineages within the Characiformes, by studies on comparative anatomy of miniature fishes and of ontogenetic series of related larger-sized species. The taxonomic component aims to describe new species and to perform taxonomic reviews including molecular and cytogenetic analysis as additional tools to morphology, as well as field inventory. In the biogeographic component, distributional data of miniature species will be associated to historical and geomorphological data, in order to detect distributional patterns and to comprehend which environment had favored the evolution of small-sized lineages. This integrative study is pioneer in understanding the evolution and diversity and the conservation of this freshwater fish fauna. (AU)
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