The importance of even highly incomplete fossil taxa in reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships of the Tetraodontiformes (Acanthomorpha: Pisces)

The use of fossils in the phylogenetics of extant clades traditionally has been a contentious issue. Fossils usually are relatively incomplete, and their use commonly leads to an increase in the number of equally most parsimonious trees and a decrease in the resolution of phylogenies. Fossils alone, however, provide certain kinds of information about the biological history of a clade, and computer simulations have shown that even highly incomplete material can, under certain circumstances, increase the accuracy of a phylogeny, rather than decrease it. Because empirical data are still scarce on the effects of the inclusion of fossils on phylogenetic reconstructions, we attempted to investigate this problem by using a relatively well-known group of acanthomorph fishes, the Tetraodontiformes (triggerfishes, pufferfishes, and ocean sunfishes), for which robust phylogenies using extant taxa already exist and that has a well-studied fossil record. Adding incomplete fossil taxa of tetraodontiforms usually increases the number of equally most parsimonious trees and often decreases the resolution of consensus trees. However, adding fossil taxa may help to correctly establish relationships among lineages that have experienced high degrees of morphological diversification by allowing for a reinterpretation of homologous and homoplastic features, increasing the resolution rather than decreasing it. Furthermore, taxa that were scored for 25% or more of their characters did not cause a significant loss of resolution, while providing unique biological information.