The mitochondrial phylogeny of an ancient lineage of ray-finned fishes (Polypteridae) with implications for the evolution of body elongation, pelvic fin loss, and craniofacial morphology in Osteichthyes

Table 1 Number of vertebrae and condition of the lower jaw and pelvic fins in each species and subspecies of Polypteridae.

Species	N. of vertebrae	Jaw protrusion	Pelvic fin
Erpetoichthys calabaricus	110-113 (111.5)	Upper	Absent
Polypterus ansorgii	57	Lower	Present
P. bichir bichir	67	Lower	Present
P. bichir katangae*	?	Lower	Present
P. bichir lapradei	60-62 (61)	Lower	Present
P. delhezi	55	Upper	Present
P. endlicheri congicus	57	Lower	Present
P. endlicheri endlicheri	53-57 (55)	Lower	Present
P. mokelembembe	56	Upper	Present
P. ornatipinnis	56-60 (58)	Upper	Present
P. palmas palmas*	56-59	Upper	Present
P. palmas buettikoferi	56-58 (57)	Upper	Present
P. palmas polli	50-56 (53)	Upper	Present
P. retropinnis	57-58 (57.5)	Upper	Present
P. senegalus meridionalis*	?	Upper	Present
P. senegalus senegalus	53-59 (56)	Upper	Present
P. teugelsi	63-65 (64)	Upper	Present
P. weeksii	57	Upper	Present

Values in parentheses are means of vertebral number used in the squared-change parsimony ancestral state reconstruction analyses. *Taxa not sampled in this study.

ISSN: 2730-7182