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Issue: Vol. 4701 No. 5: 2 Dec. 2019
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2019-12-02
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4701.5.10
Page range: 497–500
Abstract views: 109
PDF downloaded: 5

Poor taxonomic sampling undermines nomenclatural stability: A reply to Roxo et al. (2019)

Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil.
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, São José do Rio Preto, SP, Brazil.
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brazil.
Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Porto Nacional, TO, Brazil.
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, São José do Rio Preto, SP, Brazil. Instituto Federal do Paraná, Londrina, PR, Brazil.
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, PR, Brazil.
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
Universidade Federal do Pará, Altamira, PA, Brazil.
General

Abstract

A recent study based on genomic data by Roxo et al. (2019) provided a phylogeny of the Loricariidae, the largest catfish family and second largest Neotropical fish family with approximately 1,000 species. The study represents a valuable and innovative contribution for understanding higher-level relationships within the family. The phylogenetic tree inferred by Roxo et al. (2019) thoroughly corroborates the monophyly and relationships of most currently accepted subfamilies of Loricariidae, based on a fair taxon sampling (nearly 14% of the species in the family) representing most genera of each but one of the subfamilies, the Lithogeninae, the sister-group of the remaining members of the family (Pereira & Reis, 2017; Reis et al., 2017). In addition to a hypothesis of relationships, Roxo et al. (2019) also proposed a series of lower-level taxonomic changes, which are deemed premature considering that the taxonomic sampling of the study targeted higher-level clades, and go against one of the pillars of biological classification: nomenclatural stability (e.g., Heterick & Majer, 2018; Beninger & Backeljau, 2019). Here we (1) discuss implications of inadequate taxonomic sampling as a basis for changes in classification of species; (2) explain why the taxonomic sampling design of Roxo et al. (2019) is inadequate for the proposed nomenclatural changes; and (3) advocate that changes to classifications must be grounded on phylogenies with dense sampling of taxa at the relevant level.

 

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