title: The phylogenetic significance of colour patterns in marine teleost larvae.
abstract: Ichthyologists, natural-history artists, and tropical-fish aquarists have described, illustrated, or photographed colour patterns in adult marine fishes for centuries, but colour patterns in marine fish larvae have largely been neglected. Yet the pelagic larval stages of many marine fishes exhibit subtle to striking, ephemeral patterns of chromatophores that warrant investigation into their potential taxonomic and phylogenetic significance. Colour patterns in larvae of over 200 species of marine teleosts, primarily from the western Caribbean, were examined from digital colour photographs, and their potential utility in elucidating evolutionary relationships at various taxonomic levels was assessed. Larvae of relatively few basal marine teleosts exhibit erythrophores, xanthophores, or iridophores (i.e. nonmelanistic chromatophores), but one or more of those types of chromatophores are visible in larvae of many basal marine neoteleosts and nearly all marine percomorphs. Whether or not the presence of nonmelanistic chromatophores in pelagic marine larvae diagnoses any major teleost taxonomic group cannot be determined based on the preliminary survey conducted, but there is a trend toward increased colour from elopomorphs to percomorphs. Within percomorphs, patterns of nonmelanistic chromatophores may help resolve or contribute evidence to existing hypotheses of relationships at multiple levels of classification. Mugilid and some beloniform larvae share a unique ontogenetic transformation of colour pattern that lends support to the hypothesis of a close relationship between them. Larvae of some tetraodontiforms and lophiiforms are strikingly similar in having the trunk enclosed in an inflated sac covered with xanthophores, a character that may help resolve the relationships of these enigmatic taxa. Colour patterns in percomorph larvae also appear to diagnose certain groups at the interfamilial, familial, intergeneric, and generic levels. Slight differences in generic colour patterns, including whether the pattern comprises xanthophores or erythrophores, often distinguish species. The homology, ontogeny, and possible functional significance of colour patterns in larvae are discussed. Considerably more investigation of larval colour patterns in marine teleosts is needed to assess fully their value in phylogenetic reconstruction.
authors.affiliation: Division of Fishes, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC, 20560, USA.
authors.forename: Carole C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Baldwin
keywords: chromatophore; erythrophore; fish larvae; iridophore; western Caribbean; xanthophore
references.citation: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2004 Aug;32(2):627-46
references.pmid: 15223043
references.citation: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2005 Aug;36(2):370-90
references.pmid: 15955516
references.citation: Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2004 Aug;79(3):583-610
references.pmid: 15366764
references.citation: Mitochondrial DNA. 2013 Feb;24(1):55-66
references.pmid: 22967094
references.citation: Dev Biol. 1995 Jan;167(1):27-33
references.pmid: 7851648
references.citation: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2004 Oct;33(1):140-55
references.pmid: 15324844
references.citation: Development. 2004 Dec;131(24):6053-69
references.pmid: 15537688
references.citation: BMC Evol Biol. 2010 Feb 23;10:58
references.pmid: 20178642
references.citation: Curr Biol. 2003 Dec 16;13(24):R947-50
references.pmid: 14680649
references.citation: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2003 Mar;26(3):354-68
references.pmid: 12644397
references.citation: PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e41059
references.pmid: 22815912
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2009 Oct 7;276(1672):3439-46
references.pmid: 19586949
references.citation: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2010 Sep;56(3):897-904
references.pmid: 20416385
references.citation: Evolution. 2003 Jul;57(7):1584-98
references.pmid: 12940363
references.citation: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2005 Mar;34(3):525-44
references.pmid: 15683927
references.citation: Cell Tissue Res. 1974;149(2):159-72
references.pmid: 4424316
references.citation: Development. 2000 Jul;127(14):3031-44
references.pmid: 10862741
references.citation: Pigment Cell Res. 2004 Aug;17(4):326-36
references.pmid: 15250934
references.citation: J Chem Ecol. 2002 Oct;28(10):1987-2000
references.pmid: 12474895
references.citation: Biol Lett. 2009 Apr 23;5(2):235-9
references.pmid: 19158027
references.citation: PLoS Genet. 2011 May;7(5):e1002044
references.pmid: 21625562
references.citation: Heredity (Edinb). 2006 Sep;97(3):200-10
references.pmid: 16835593
references.citation: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2009 Jul;52(1):1-16
references.pmid: 19135160
references.citation: J Cell Biol. 1965 Dec;27(3):493-504
references.pmid: 5885426
references.citation: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2003 Jan;26(1):121-38
references.pmid: 12470944