MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION, APTATIONS, HOMOPLASIES, CONSTRAINTS AND EVOLUTIONARY TRENDS...

The major aim of this work is, to help understand the interrelationships of catfishes, with major implications on the study of the general evolution of these fishes. A great part of this work therefore, deals with a cladistic analysis of catfish higher-level phylogeny based on extensive morphological data, in which are included some terminal taxa not included in previous analyses, but principally a large number of characters traditionally excluded from those analyses, with particular attention being given to catfish myology. This analysis gives particular importance to complex, integrated structures. It will be of interest to students ichthyologists and biologists working in evolution, taxonomy, and phylogeny.