Research Training Program

Neil Aschliman
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas

Bruce Collette, Ph.D.
Supervising Scientist
Vertebrate Zoology - Fishes

"The unparalleled experiences and
friendships built during the RTP have
forever endeared to me natural history
research and the museum milieu."

Relationships of sauries and needlefishes to the internally fertilizing
halfbeaks based on the anatomy of the pharynx

The Beloniformes are an order of bony fishes including the needlefishes, sauries, halfbeaks, flyingfishes, and rice fishes. The scientific classification of groups such as the Beloniformes may be determined by a detailed comparison of body form traits between species. Recent molecular studies and work comparing bone and muscle elements of the pharynx, or throat region, of these fishes suggest that the current scientific classification of halfbeaks is invalid. These studies identified the five genera of internally fertilizing halfbeaks from the Indo-West Pacific as a separate family more closely related to the needlefish and sauries than to other halfbeaks. As sauries were not included in Dr. Ian Tibbetts' analysis of the pharynx, we extended his procedure to the two genera of sauries in order to resolve the relationships of the Beloniformes. Sauries live in warm surface waters of the open ocean and are important food fishes in some areas such as the Mediterranean. They are vital links in the food chain, transferring energy from lower to higher trophic levels. Our comparative study of the dorsal gill arches indicates that sauries are most closely related to needlefishes, clarifying the relationships of this group of commercially valuable fishes. We find that the Indo-West Pacific halfbeaks are a natural group, with strong evidence indicating that they are most closely related to the sauries and needlefishes. Further resolving the structure of the needlefish family and the group comprising the remaining halfbeaks will require both the identification of more skeletal and muscular differences between genera and the examination of additional species.

This research was supported by a grant from the Alice Eve Kennington Endowment and Battelle.

Letter of gratitude