Studies on the osteology of the bagrid catfishes from the Jialing Rive

Studies on the osteology of the bagrid catfishes fromthe Jialing River (IV) : an approach to the phyloge-netic relationship

ＳｔｕｄｉｅｓｏｎｔｈｅｏｓｔｅｏｌｏｇｙｏｆｔｈｅｂａｇｒｉｄｃａｔｆｉｓｈｅｓｆｒｏｍｔｈｅＪｉａｌｉｎｇＲｉｖｅｒ（ＩＶ）：ａｎａｐｐｒｏａｃｈｔｏｔｈｅｐｈｙｌｏｇｅ－ｎｅｔｉｃｒｅｌａｔｉｏｎｓｈｉｐＺｈａｎｇＹａｏｇｕａｎｇ；ＷａｎｇＤｅ...

Based an the cladistic character analysis of the ten osteological features of 11 bagrid catfish-escollected from the Jialing River, an approach to the phylogenetic relationship of these fishes were es-tablished accordingly. These bagrid catfishes can be divided into two sister-group A and B. Group Aincludes genera Leocassis and Pseudobagrus.Gruup B includes senera Pelleobagrus and Mystus. Leocassisbears nine of the plesiomorphies,and therefore is the most primitive genus of the four. Mystus.,whichbars all the apomorphies, is the most specialized. Pseudobagrus and Pelteobagrus are relatively specializedfor their obvious mosaic distribution of characters. The evolutionary trends of Bagridae are towards flatskull , wide mouth, elongated body form, short supraoccipital spme and forked caudal fin. Based onthe general differences in skeletal morphology, Pelteobagrus can be divided into two specific groups. Pseu-dobagrus brevicaudatus (Wu)should restore its original taxonomic position, and its original name Leocassisbrevicaudatus Wu.