Improved resolution and a novel phylogeny for the Neotropical triplefin blennies (Teleostei: Tripterygiidae)

•We report a novel phylogeny for the Neotropical triplefin blennies using four mitochondrial and three nuclear loci.•Additional loci allow for greater resolution, likely due to “hidden support”.•The monophyly of Axoclinus is supported, but Enneanectes is paraphyletic.•We include comments on the biogeography of the Neotropical triplefins.

The triplefin blennies (Teleostei: Tripterygiidae) are a diverse group of small-bodied benthic fishes associated with rocky or coral reefs. The Neotropics contain four genera and 26 species, many of which have only been recently described. A recent molecular phylogeny (Lin and Hastings, 2013) contrasts with previous phylogenies based on morphology in recovering the four Neotropical genera as a single clade with respect to the Indo-Pacific genera; however, relationships within and among genera were poorly resolved. This study reports a novel topology based on an expanded seven-loci molecular dataset. Individual gene trees have poor resolution, but concatenated analyses show strong support for most nodes, likely due to emergent support from concatenation. Consistent with Lin and Hastings (2013), three of the Neotropical genera, Axoclinus, Enneanectes, and Crocodilichthys, form a well-supported clade, but relationships of the fourth (Lepidonectes) are not confidently resolved. The monophyly of Axoclinus is well supported, but Enneanectes is paraphyletic with the inclusion of Axoclinus and Crocodilichthys. Improved resolution allows for reinterpretation of the biogeography of the Neotropical Tripterygiidae. Broader taxon sampling is still necessary for resolving the relationships within Tripterygiidae globally.

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