The Emerging Phylogenetic Perspective on the Evolution of Actinopterygian Fishes

The emergence of a new phylogeny of ray-finned fishes at the turn of the twenty-first century marked a paradigm shift in understanding the evolutionary history of half of living vertebrates. We review how the new ray-finned fish phylogeny radically departs from classical expectations based on morphology. We focus on evolutionary relationships that span the backbone of ray-finned fish phylogeny, from the earliest divergences among teleosts and nonteleosts to the resolution of major lineages of Percomorpha. Throughout, we feature advances gained by the new phylogeny toward a broader understanding of ray-finned fish evolutionary history and the implications for topics that span from the genetics of human health to reconsidering the concept of living fossils. Additionally, we discuss conceptual challenges that involve reconciling taxonomic classification with phylogenetic relationships and propose an alternate higher-level classification for Percomorpha. Our review highlights remaining areas of phylogenetic uncertainty and opportunities for comparative investigations empowered by this new phylogenetic perspective on ray-finned fishes.

Automated summary

The emergence of a new phylogeny of ray-finned fishes in the early twenty-first century has brought about a paradigm shift in understanding the evolutionary history of half of living vertebrates. This new perspective has provided advances in our understanding of ray-finned fish evolutionary history and has implications for various topics, from human health genetics to reconsidering the concept of living fossils. Challenges related to reconciling taxonomic classification with phylogenetic relationships have been highlighted, leading to the proposal of an alternate higher-level classification for Percomorpha. The review also emphasizes remaining areas of phylogenetic uncertainty and opportunities for further comparative investigations empowered by this new phylogenetic perspective on ray-finned fishes.