Additionally, ten of the morphological characters were derived from species descriptions [ 29, 30] rather than herbarium material.
Here, we use a combined analysis of partial sequences of the nuclear GHR gene and morphological characters to derive a phylogeny of species in the family Chrysochloridae.
Therefore, like larval and hard-part morphology, which are continuously updated [ 62, 63], morphological character sets derived from internal organs of sea urchins will serve as a useful systematic reference for future studies.
Unfortunately, we collected only shared derived morphological characters, eschewing autapomorphies.
Along with the endoparasitic life cycle, the acanthocephalan subtaxa share a plethora of derived morphological characters (e.g., [ 8- 11]) so that the monophyly of Acanthocephala as a whole has never been debated.
Triodon macropterus, a monotypic triodontid with a mosaic of primitive and derived morphological characters (ref, [ 4]; e.g., parrot-like beak and lacking pelvic fins, like tetraodontoids; spinous dorsal fins, a pelvis, and procurrent rays, like balistoids and triacanthoids).
This is particularly likely to hold true for groups where there is a paucity of other non-genitalic somatic features (i.e., some large percentage of the morphological character matrix is derived from genitalia).
Previous efforts to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships of endemic East Asian cyprinids have been problematic and of limited success with the use of data yielding short internodes derived from morphological characters [8], mitochondrial genes [5], [6],and two nuclear genes [3], [7].
Caruso [ 30] presented the first cladogram of lophiid genera based on 19 morphological characters, of which 12 showed derived states shared by two or three genera.
An approach that could prove more promising is to map the morphological characters on a well-supported tree derived from molecular data to find what characters are in need for re-study and re-interpretation.
