Belongs within: Serraniformes.
Contains: Platycephalidae, Cottioidei, Triglidae, Scorpaenidae, Tetrarogidae, Synanceiidae.
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Published 24 March 2025
The interrelationships of the Acanthomorpha, the spiny-finned fishes, are a long-standing challenge to fish systematics that has only really begun to see any sort of resolution through the use of molecular analyses in the last couple of decades. However, not all clades that have been proposed in recent years have been universally accepted. Let me tell you a tale of Triglimorpha.
The Triglidae, gurnards, are bottom-dwelling fishes that are among those families historically included in the order Scorpaeniformes, the ‘mail-cheeked’ fishes. The members of this order were united on the basis of a single character: the suborbital stay, a posterior extension of the third circumorbital bone forming a bony ridge connecting to the gill cover. The coherence of this group would eventually be challenged by molecular data, and the ‘Scorpaeniformes’ were identified as polyphyletic by Smith & Wheeler (2004). In particular, the sculpins and related families of the suborder Cottoidei were associated with the non-scorpaeniform Zoarcoidei (eelpouts and allies) and Gasterosteidae (sticklebacks), a result that has received continued support from subsequent analyses. The Triglidae, in contrast, were associated with a clade including members of the suborder Scorpaenoidei, the scorpionfishes.
A subsequent analysis of acanthomorph interrelationships by Li et al. (2009) found much of the tree unresolved but did recover a select number of clades. One such clade united the Triglidae with the Cottoidei-Zoarcoidei-Gasterosteidae assemblage. In a summary table of their findings, Li et al. dubbed this clade the Triglimorpha. However, the clade was not discussed in any further detail, with no indication of a definition or description beyond the included taxa. Li et al.’s designation has not received general acceptance. Indeed, the only reference to ‘Triglimorpha’ I could even find in the subsequent literature was in Britz & Johnson (2011), in which it is only mentioned in passing as a cautionary example of a molecular-based clade name whose lack of identified synapomorphies makes it (in those author’s opinion) effectively unusable.
A clade comparable to Li et al.’s (2009) ‘Triglimorpha’ was subsequently supported by Lautredou et al. (2013). However, other analyses such as Smith et al. (2018) have placed the Triglidae closer to Scorpaenoidei, as in Smith & Wheeler’s (2004) earlier results. And if we cannot agree on the position of triglids, there is even less value in debating the position of triglimorphs.
Systematics of Triglimorpha
<==Triglimorpha [Platycephaloidei]
|--+--PlatycephalidaeND13
| `--+--Plectrogenium [Plectrogeniidae, Plectrogeninae]SC07
| | `--P. nanumSC07
| `--BembridaeND13
| |--Bembras japonicusND13
| |--BembradiumLM13
| `--Parabembras [Parabembridae]ND13
| `--P. curtusND13
`--+--HoplichthyidaeP93
| |--Hoplichthyidarum pulcher Schwarzhans 1980P93
| `--Hoplichthys [Hoplichthyidae]ND13
| |--H. citrinusSC07
| |--H. gilbertiND13
| |--H. langsdorfiiND13
| `--H. reganiLM13
`--+--CottioideiB-RB13
`--+--TriglioideiB-RB13
| |--TriglidaeND13
| `--PeristediidaeB-RB13
| |--Peristedion [Peristediinae]SC07
| | |--P. liorhynchus (Günther 1871) [=Peristethus liorhynchus]M58
| | |--P. miniatum Goode 1880K-MM02
| | `--P. orientaleLM13
| `--SatyrichthysLM13
| |--S. amiscusT09
| |--S. hiansLM13
| |--S. murrayiLM13
| `--S. welchiLM13
`--ScorpaenoideiB-RB13
| i. s.: Setarches Johnson 1862S57 (see below for synonymy)
| `--*S. guntheri Johnson 1862 [incl. S. longiceps Smith 1949, S. marleyi Fowler 1935]S57
| Scorpaenoideorum prominens (Stinton 1978)P93
| 0--Neosebastidae [Neosebastinae]SC07
| | |--Maxillicosta whitleyiSC07
| | `--Neosebastes pandusSC07
| `--CongiopodidaeP93
| |--Congiopodus peruvianusSC07
| `--Zanclorhynchus [Zanclorhynchidae]LM13
| `--Z. spinifer Günther 1880LD09
| Rhamphosus [Rhamphosidae]B80
| |--R. rastrum Volta 1796 [incl. R. aculeatus (de Blainville 1818)]B80
| `--R. biserratus Bassani 1876B80
|--ScorpaenidaeND13
`--+--TetrarogidaeSC07
`--+--+--SynanceiidaeSC07
| `--+--Ablabys taenionotus (Cuvier 1829)SC07, MM14
| `--Gnathanacanthus [Gnathanacanthidae]SC07
| `--G. goetzeiSC07
`--+--Aetapcus [Pataecidae]SC07
| `--A. maculatesSC07
`--AploactinidaeSC07
|--Aploactisoma milesiiSC07
|--Erisphex pottiiLM13
|--Neoaploactis tridorsalisH90
`--Paraploactis pulvinus Poss & Eschmeyer 1978MM14
Setarches Johnson 1862S57 [incl. Bathysebastes Steindachner & Doderlein 1884S57, Lioscorpis Gunther 1880S57, Lythrichthys Jordan & Starks 1904S57, Macroscorpius Fowler 1938S57; SetarchidaeB-RB13, Setarchinae]
Type species of generic name indicated
References
[B-RB13] Betancur-R., R., R. E. Broughton, E. O. Wiley, K. Carpenter, A. López, C. Li, N. I. Holcroft, D. Arcila, M. Sanciangco, J. C. Cureton, II, F. Zhang, T. Buser, M. A. Campbell, J. A. Ballesteros, A. Roa-Varon, S. Willis, W. C. Borden, T. Rowley, P. C. Reneau, D. J. Hough, G. Lu, T. Grande, G. Arratia & G. Ortí. 2013. The tree of life and a new classification of bony fishes. PLoS Currents Tree of Life April 18 2013. doi: 10.1371/currents.tol.53ba26640df0ccaee75bb165c8c26288.
[B80] Blot, J. 1980. La faune ichthyologique des gisements du Monte Bolca (Province de Vérone, Italie). Catalogue systématique présentant l’état actuel des recherches concernant cette faune. Bulletin du Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle C 2: 339–396.
[H90] Hutchins, J. B. 1990. Fish survey of South Passage, Shark Bay, Western Australia. In: Berry, P. F., S. D. Bradshaw & B. R. Wilson (eds) Research in Shark Bay: Report of the France-Australe Bicentenary Expedition Committee pp. 263–278. Western Australian Museum.
[K-MM02] Klein-MacPhee, G., & R. S. McBride. 2002. Sea robins. Family Triglidae. In: Collette, B. B., & G. Klein-MacPhee (eds) Bigelow and Schroeder’s Fishes of the Gulf of Maine 3rd ed. pp. 338–345. Smithsonian Institute Press: Washington.
[LM13] Lautredou, A.-C., H. Motomura, C. Gallut, C. Ozouf-Costaz, C. Cruaud, G. Lecointre & A. Dettai. 2013. New nuclear markers and exploration of the relationships among Serraniformes (Acanthomorpha, Teleostei): the importance of working at multiple scales. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 67: 140–155.
[LD09] Li, B., A. Dettaï, C. Cruaud, A. Couloux, M. Desoutter-Meniger & G. Lecointre. 2009. RNF213, a new nuclear marker for acanthomorph phylogeny. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 50: 345–363.
[MM14] Moore, G. I., S. M. Morrison, J. B. Hutchins, G. R. Allen & A. Sampey. 2014. Kimberley marine biota. Historical data: fishes. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 84: 161–206.
[M58] Munro, I. S. R. 1958. The fishes of the New Guinea region: a check-list of the fishes of New Guinea incorporating records of species collected by the Fisheries Survey Vessel “Fairwind” during the years 1948 to 1950. Papua and New Guinea Agricultural Journal 10 (4): 97–369 (reprinted: 1958. Territory of Papua and New Guinea Fisheries Bulletin no. 1).
[ND13] Near, T. J., A. Dornburg, R. I. Eytan, B. P. Keck, W. L. Smith, K. L. Kuhn, J. A. Moore, S. A. Price, F. T. Burbrink, M. Friedman & P. C. Wainwright. 2013. Phylogeny and tempo of diversification in the superradiation of spiny-rayed fishes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110 (31): 12738–12743.
[P93] Patterson, C. 1993. Osteichthyes: Teleostei. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 621–656. Chapman & Hall: London.
[S57] Smith, J. L. B. 1957. The fishes of the family Scorpaenidae in the western Indian Ocean. Part II. The subfamilies Pteroinae, Apistinae, Setarchinae and Sebastinae. Ichthyological Bulletin 5: 75–88.
[SC07] Smith, W. L., & M. T. Craig. 2007. Casting the percomorph net widely: the importance of broad taxonomic sampling in the search for the placement of serranid and percid fishes. Copeia 2007 (1): 35–55.
[T09] Thacker, C. E. 2009. Phylogeny of Gobioidei and placement within Acanthomorpha, with a new classification and investigation of diversification and character evolution. Copeia 2009 (1): 93–104.