Phylogenetic relationships of Indo-Pacific coral gobies of the genus Gobiodon (Teleostei: Gobiidae), based on morphological and molecular data

Gobiodon species are coral-commensal gobiid fishes which occur throughout much of the Indo-Pacific Region. Species-level phylogenetic relationships were analyzed using mitochondrial DNA sequences. Portions of the 12S and 16S rRNA mitochondrial genes were selected for analysis. A search was made for the most parsimonious trees (maximum parsimony), the result of which was two trees with a consistency index of 0.620 and length of 753 steps. Bootstrap support and decay values were calculated for each resolved node. Many parts of the trees were well-supported, but with lower support at intermediate levels. Monophyly of Gobiodon is strongly supported (bootstrap support 100%, decay value 33). Inclusion of a set of morphological characters in a total evidence analysis provided additional support at some nodes resolved by the molecules-only analysis and also allowed a number of new resolutions. In the total evidence tree the specialized deep-bodied, compressed species, such as Gobiodon histrio (Valenciennes, 1837), Gobiodon unicolor (Castelnau, 1873), and Gobiodon brochus (Harold and Winterbottom, 1999), form a monophyletic group, whereas the molecular analysis has them paraphyletic. In both analyses, the morphologically generalized species, Gobiodon quinquestrigatus (Valenciennes, 1837), and related species form a clade which is sister group to all other Gobiodon species.