Integrating fossils with genomic data to clarify the evolution of the herring-like fishes (Clupeiformes: Clupeoidei)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Bettina Reichenbacher
• Subject Area: Palaeontology ; Systematics and Morphology (Zoology)
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 403523527

Clupeoidei (e.g. herrings, sardines, anchovies) constitutes a large suborder of teleost fishes, which encompasses some 400 extant, small to moderate-sized (<50 cm) pelagic species. Species of clupeoids play significant ecological and economic roles, but their evolutionary history remains obscure, despite the availability of a good fossil record comprising about 160 species based on articulated skeletons. This is mainly the result of the lack of detailed taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of a large part of the fossil species available. The overall aim of the proposed project is to incorporate fossil and living clupeoids into a unified, time-calibrated phylogeny and infer the history of their diversification. The project is made up of two successive work packages (WP), with WP1 lasting for three years and WP2 for two years. WP2 will get underway when WP1 is virtually complete. The specific objectives of WP1 are (i) to assemble a new, comprehensive data matrix based on analyses of skeletal characters for already selected fossil and extant species, (ii) to construct phylogenetic trees from the new matrix, and (iii) to critically evaluate the increase in numbers of fossil species that is observable in the fossil record since the Oligocene and Miocene. The specific aims of WP2 are (i) to combine available molecular data with the morphological character matrix, (ii) to construct phylogenetic trees from different combinations of datasets, (iii) to infer lineage divergence times from these trees using state-of-the art methods, and (iv) to use the new time-calibrated phylogenies as the basis for the analysis of diversification patterns. The new data will provide completely new insights into the evolutionary history of the Clupeoidei and also shed light on the evolution of extant species that are not represented in the fossil record. Clupeoid evolution is currently a hot topic in ichthyological research, with several groups working with different sources of data (DNA, morphology of extant species, and paleontology). However, an integrative approach, which brings together fossils and genomic data, is currently lacking. This project aims to fill that gap and is therefore expected to receive considerable attention.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants