Biogeography in the Neotropics: historical distributions of Characiformes (Actinopterygii, Ostariophysi)

• Grant number: 18/20806-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): July 21, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Mario Cesar Cardoso de Pinna
• Grantee: Victor Alberto Tagliacollo
• Host Institution: Museu de Zoologia (MZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The historical origins of the Neotropical fauna have fascinated generations of evolutionary biologists, however it has been only in the last decades that ichthyologists have come to appreciate the antiquity of many lineages, including those of the order Characiformes. This proposal aims to investigate historical gradients of clade richness in the Neotropics by integrating data on evolutionary relationships and spatial distributions of Characiformes. Specifically, it intends to combine divergence time estimates and distributional maps of characiform species to examine general patterns of clade richness through time and, thus to understand their geographic range evolution since the breakup of Gondwana (c. 90 myr). Testing historical biogeography hypotheses typically requires two kinds of data objects: a reliable phylogeny and a curated database of species distributions. Relationships within Characiformes are still controversial, especially between the African and Neotropical clades. Hence, a time-calibrated tree will be estimated using cutting-edge methods for trimming and filtering alignments. Further, a reliable GPS-based database will be assembled based on information from taxonomic publications, museum collections, metadata repositories, and by consulting specialists of several groups. Each of these methodological steps will be conducted using innovative bioinformatics pipelines to guarantee reproducibility and data reliability. In summary, this proposal will combine the temporal context (evolutionary relationships) and spatial context (species distributions) of Characiformes to investigate historical gradients of clade richness in the Neotropics, especially among the freshwater systems located in the trans-Andean regions, Amazonian lowland floodplains, South American upland shields, and cis-Andean coastal drainages; i.e. it will reveal spatiotemporal patterns of range evolution at continental scale and since the Cretaceous.

Scientific publications

(8)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ALDA, FERNANDO; TAGLIACOLLO, VICTOR A.; BERNT, MAXWELL J.; WALTZ, BRANDON T.; LUDT, WILLIAM B.; FAIRCLOTH, BRANT C.; ALFARO, MICHAEL E.; ALBERT, JAMES S.; CHAKRABARTY, PROSANTA. Resolving Deep Nodes in an Ancient Radiation of Neotropical Fishes in the Presence of Conflicting Signals from Incomplete Lineage Sorting. Systematic Biology, v. 68, n. 4, p. 573-593, JUL 2019. (18/20806-3)

BERNT, MAXWELL J.; TAGLIACOLLO, VICTOR A.; ALBERT, JAMES S.. Molecular phylogeny of the ghost knifefishes (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, v. 135, p. 297-307, JUN 2019. (18/20806-3)

EVANS, KORY M.; VIDAL-GARCIA, MARTA; TAGLIACOLLO, VICTOR A.; TAYLOR, SAMUEL J.; FENOLIO, DANTE B.. Bony Patchwork: Mosaic Patterns of Evolution in the Skull of Electric Fishes (Apteronotidae: Gymnotiformes). INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY, v. 59, n. 2, p. 420-431, AUG 2019. (18/20806-3)

TAGLIACOLLO, VICTOR A.; PAIVA DAGOSTA, FERNANDO CESAR; DE PINNA, MARIO; REIS, ROBERTO E.; ALBERT, JAMES S.. Assessing extinction risk from geographic distribution data in Neotropical freshwater fishes. Neotropical Ichthyology, v. 19, n. 3, 2021. (18/20806-3, 16/19075-9)

JACK M. CRAIG; TIAGO P. CARVALHO; PROSANTA CHAKRABARTY; VALERIE DEROUEN; HERNÁN ORTEGA; PAULO PETRY; ROBERTO E. REIS; VICTOR A. TAGLIACOLLO; JAMES S. ALBERT. Using community phylogenetics to assess phylogenetic structure in the Fitzcarrald region of Western Amazonia. Neotropical Ichthyology, v. 18, n. 2, 2020-06-26. (18/20806-3)

MELO, BRUNO F.; ALBERT, JAMES S.; DAGOSTA, FERNANDO C. P.; TAGLIACOLLO, VICTOR A.. Biogeography of curimatid fishes reveals multiple lowland-upland river transitions and differential diversification in the Neotropics (Teleostei, Curimatidae). ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, v. 11, n. 22, NOV 2021. (18/20806-3, 16/19075-9, 11/08374-1, 16/11313-8, 14/26508-3, 17/09321-5)

TAGLIACOLLO, VICTOR A.; CAMELIER, PRISCILA; ZANATA, ANGELA M.; REIS, ROBERTO E.. A shocking discovery of threat risks on newly described species of weakly electric fishes. Journal of Fish Biology, JULY 2019. (16/19075-9, 18/20806-3)

DAGOSTA, FERNANDO C. P.; DE PINNA, MARIO; PERES, CARLOS A.; TAGLIACOLLO, VICTOR A.. Existing protected areas provide a poor safety-net for threatened Amazonian fish species. AQUATIC CONSERVATION-MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, v. 31, n. 5, SI, p. 1167-1189, MAY 2021. (15/26804-4, 17/09321-5, 16/07246-3, 18/20806-3, 16/19075-9)