| Abstrakt: |
Controversy and uncertainty about evolutionary relationships within the endangered order Acipenseriformes has stimulated much research on the topic in recent years. In this paper a proposed phylogeny including 23 species of the order based on the analysis of 28 morphological characters is presented. The outcome of this study compared with previously published molecular phylogenies demonstrated a high amount of morphological convergence likely due to very similar ecological adaptation. The following main disagreements were observed between morphological and molecular phylogenies: morphological data provided evidence for the monophyly of the genus Huso and a sister group relationship between Scaphirhynchus and Pseudoscaphirhynchus, and an Atlantic/Pacific split was not supported for species possessing ~120 chromosomes. In contrast, the following conclusions drawn on molecular data were supported: the sea sturgeon (A. oxyrinchus and A. sturio) form a separate clade with a basal position within the Acipenseridae, A. dabryanus and A. sinensis are supported as sister species, and based on several morphological characters, the Atlantic/Pacific split was supported for species possessing ⩾250 chromosomes (A. stellatus, A. baerii, A. persicus, A. naccarii, A. gueldenstaedtii and A. brevirostrum — Atlantic, and A. medirostris, A. mikadoi, A. dabryanus, A. sinensis and A. transmontanus — Pacific). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
