Exodontinae Fowler, 1958

Melo, Bruno F, Ota, Rafaela P, Benine, Ricardo C, Carvalho, Fernando R, Lima, Flavio C T, Mattox, George M T, Souza, Camila S, Faria, Tiago C, Reia, Lais, Roxo, Fabio F, Valdez-Moreno, Martha, Near, Thomas J & Oliveira, Claudio, 2024, Phylogenomics of Characidae, a hyper-diverse Neotropical freshwater fish lineage, with a phylogenetic classification including four families (Teleostei: Characiformes), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Zool. J. Linn. Soc.) 202 (1), pp. 1-37 : 15

Exodontinae Fowler, 1958 , new usage

Type genus: Exodon Müller and Troschel, 1845 .

Included genera: Bryconexodon Géry, 1980, Exodon, Roeboexodon.

Definition: The least inclusive crown clade that contains Exodon paradoxus Müller and Troschel, 1844 and Bryconexodon juruenae Géry, 1980 . This is a minimum-crown-clade definition. See Figure 4 for a reference phylogeny of Exodontinae.

Etymology: From the ancient Greek ἒξω (ɛɡzˈo͡ʊ) meaning on the outside and ὀδών (ˈo͡ʊdɑːn) meaning tooth.

Remarks: The tribe Exodonidi was first characterized by ‘the presence of external denticles on outer surface of jaws, clavicle not notched to receive pectoral base, and short anal fin with less than 30 rays’ (Fowler 1958). Phylogenetic analyses of molecular and morphological characters resolve a clade containing three lepidophagous characid genera Bryconexodon , Exodon , and Roeboexodon that is delimited here as Exodontinae (Mirande 2009, 2010, Mattox and Toledo-Piza 2012, Melo et al. 2022a). Within Exodontinae, all three possible relationships among the three genera are resolved: Roeboexodon as the sister-lineage of all other exodontines (Mirande 2010), Exodon as the sister to all other exodontines (Mattox and Toledo-Piza 2012), and Bryconexodon the sister-lineage of the clade containing Roeboexodon and Exodon ( Fig.4; Melo et al. 2022a). Exodontinae are supported by 12 morphological synapomorphies, some of which are associated with reinforcement of the anterior portion of the head and are probably associated with their peculiar way of plucking scales (Mattox and Toledo-Piza 2012). Species of Exodontinae are distributed in the Amazon–Orinoco–Guianas region ( Fig. 4).