Re: ancestral apistos

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Steven,

Kullander recently wrote a paper on South American cichlid phylogeny. He believes
that the genus Apistogramma and Gymnogeophagus are most closely related because
they show more plesiomorphs (ancestral characteristics) in common with each other
than any other presently known genera. My feeling is that Apistogramma originated
in the Mato Grosso region or along the northern slopes of the southern Brazilian
Highlands, in southeastern Brazil. When they split from their ancestral forms
(something that probably looked like Geophagus brasiliensis) is anyone's guess. I
imagine it occurred relatively recently (geologically), sometime in the late
Pliocene or early Pleistocene Epoch (3-2 million years ago). I have sent a paper
to the ACA for publication titled "A Suggested Phylogeny for Apistogramma
Species-Groups". It should be published sometime early next year. I'm not
entirely happy with it. There are just too many holes in our data that can't be
filled in. And since I wrote it, new discoveries have shown that some changes
need to be made to it already.

Mike Wise

swaldron@slip.net wrote:

> Mike and all,
> Where do we think the diverse Apisto fauna got its start? How old do we
> think the lineage is? What are the most ancestral forms? Is there a good
> phylogeny worked out?
>
>                               Steven J. Waldron
>
>                              http://WWW.ANURA.ORG
>                "Natural History, Captive Husbandry, Conservation and
>                            Biophilia of Tropical Frogs"
>
>
>
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