Procatopodidae

Bragança, Pedro H. N. & Costa, Wilson J. E. M., 2019, Multigene fossil-calibrated analysis of the African lampeyes (Cyprinodontoidei: Procatopodidae) reveals an early Oligocene origin and Neogene diversification driven by palaeogeographic and palaeoclimatic events, Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 19 (2), pp. 303-320 : 312

Procatopodidae diversification

Procatopodidae basal lineages and the early and middle Miocene moist-wet climate

Plataplochilus lineage originated in the early Oligocene, but subsequent species diversification started only in the Pliocene (3.2 Mya, 95% HDP 1.7–5.6 Mya), whereas Aplocheilichthys spilauchen , a salt-brackish water tolerant species, distributed over Africa west coast ( Fig. 4 ), diverged in the early Miocene (23.1 Mya, 95% HDP 19.1–27.2 Mya). Despite all, Plataplochilus species are strictly freshwater; it is not possible to conclude if during the Procatopodidae evolution, two independent freshwater invasions occurred, one with Plataplochilus and the other with the remaining African lampeyes except A. spilauchen , or if the latter species represents a reversal to the salt-brackish water tolerant plesiomorphic condition.

Genera representing lineages that diversified during a moist-wet stable climate phase between the early and middle Miocene are today restricted to rainforests ( Procatopus , B Hypsopanchax ,^ Hypsopanchax , and Hylopanchax ) or swampy humid areas ( Congopanchax and Lacustricola ), and all genera except Lacustricola , Lamprichthys , and one species of Hypsopanchax occur only in the Lower Guinean and Congo river ichthyological provinces ( Figs. 1 and 4 ) (Wildekamp et al. 1986). During this warm time, rainforests were broadly distributed in Africa, forming a continuous area, extending to the present East African coast and to the Sahara, in the north ( Lovett 1993; Maley 1996; Plana 2004; Stanley et al. 2005).

Figures

Fig. 4 Estimated distribution extension of Procatopodidae genera based on information present in Wildekamp et al. (1986), Wildekamp (1995), and Wildekamp (2004)

Fig. 1 Phylogenetic relationships among 36 species of Procatopodidae, including all genera but Aapticheilichthys, inferred by using partial sequences of the nuclear-encoded genes GLYT1, ENC1, RAG1, MYH6, and SREB2, a total of 5009 bp. Numbers left to the bar indicate posterior probability values and in the right are bootstrap support values taken from the maximum likelihood analysis. Asterisk means maximum values. The green dot next to species name refers to species occurring in rainforests, red dot refers to species occurring in savannahs, green/red dot refer to