Searching for head muscle characters to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of the Stenogobius lineage, with emphasis on the subgenus Awaous (Chonophorus) (Gobiiformes: Gobiidae)

• Grant number: 18/14290-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: December 03, 2018
• End date: June 02, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Morphology of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Flávio Alicino Bockmann
• Grantee: João Pedro Trevisan dos Santos
• Supervisor: George David Johnson
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/24989-2 - Taxonomic revision of subgenus Awaous (chonophorus) (Lichtenstein, 1822) and phylogenetic placement within Stenogobius lineage (Gobiiformes: Gobiidae), BP.MS

Abstract

Gobiidae is a highly diversified fish family, consisting of 258 genera and over 1,800 species distributed mostly in marine and brackish waters of tropical and subtropical zones. Phylogenetic hypotheses encompassing members of groups were mostly based on anatomical and genetic characters while myological ones were notably neglected. One of the consequences of scarcity of descriptive works on musculature of gobies is the prevalence of a non-consensual muscle nomenclature, which induces to erroneous homology statements, leading, in turn, to misleading phylogenies. In an attempt to improve the knowledge about the musculoskeletal system of gobiids the aim of this project is to describe in detail, for the first time, the musculoskeletal anatomy of the head of Awaous tajasica, comparing it with other members of Gobionellinae and Sicydiinae. Such a survey of myological traits will allow the identification and revision of phylogenetically informative characters within the "Stenogobius lineage", which includes, in addition to Awaous, eight other genera, including the type-genus of the subfamily Gobionellinae. To increase the range of the comparative analysis other specimens belonging to other subfamilies will be also analyzed. (AU)