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Relationships of the Odacidae, a temperate Australasian labroid fish family (Perciformes; Teleostei)

Kendall D. Clements¹, Michael E. Alfaro^2,3, Jen Fessler³ and Mark Westneat³

¹School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
²Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616.
³ Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.
Email: k.clements@auckland.ac.nz

The labroid family Odacidae comprises four genera and 12 species of fishes that inhabit shallow kelp forest and seagrass areas in temperate waters of Australia and New Zealand. Odacids are morphologically diverse, but share synapomorphies in fin structure and fusion of teeth into a beak-like oral jaw. A phylogenetic analysis of odacids was conducted to investigate: (a) their relationships to other labroid fishes, (b) the relationships within the family, and (c) the evolution of herbivory within the group. The mitochondrial gene 12s rDNA, and fragments of the mitochondrial gene 16s rDNA, and the nuclear genes Tmo4C4 and RAG2 were sequenced for seven odacid species (representing all four genera), eight species representing the other major labroid lineages, and three outgroup species. Maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony analyses on the resulting 2338 bp of DNA sequence produced nearly identical topologies differing only in the placement of a clade containing the labrid Cheilinus fasciatus and the scarid Cryptotomus roseus. The remaining clades received strong bootstrap support under maximum parsimony, and all clades in the maximum likelihood analysis received high bootstrap proportions and high posterior probabilities. The hypsigenyine labrid Choerodon anchorago formed the sister group to the odacids. Within the odacids, the New Zealand clade Odax cyanoallix + O. pullus formed the sister to the Australian odacids, with O. acroptilus, O. cyanomelas, and Siphonognathus argyrophanes forming successively closer sister groups to the clade Haletta semifasciatus + Neoodax balteatus. Either herbivory evolved twice in the odacids, or herbivory evolved once with two reversions to carnivory.

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