A Molecular Phylogeny of the Remoras and their Relatives

Abstract

The Echeneoidea comprise three families of cosmopolitan tropical/subtropical marine fishes: the Echeneidae (remoras), Coryphaenidae (dolphin fishes), and Rachycentridae (cobia). Complete nucleotide sequences from the mitochondrial 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, protein-coding ND2, and nuclear ITS-1 gene regions were used to reconstruct the phylogenetic history of these fishes. Parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian analyses of combined data sets resolved trees of similar topology. Congruent with evolutionary hypotheses based on larval morphology, a monophyletic Rachycentridae + Coryphaenidae was resolved with high support. Within a monophyletic Echeneidae, the subfamilies Echeneinae and Remorinae were monophyletic. In agreement with recent morphological analyses, the genus Remora was paraphyletic based on the position of Remorina albescens Temminck and Schlegel, 1850. Consistent resolution within the Remorinae using parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference was not achieved with the gene regions surveyed in this study.