Fig. 2

Calibrated composite phylogeny of extant and extinct Anguilliformes depicting the relationships of fossil and extant anguilliforms, divergence ages and evolutionary changes in the musculotendinous system (on the right) showing the length of the tendons in relation of vertebral centra. Daggers (†) preceding names indicate extinct taxa. Names in bold are extinct taxa examined in this study. Solid lines of extinct taxa indicate the stratigraphic age of fossils; dashed lines represent ghost-lineages as inferred from their systematic position. Letters above lines depict monophyletic groups referred to below. Numbers below lines are minimum divergence estimates based on molecular clock approaches [27]. An asterisk following terminal taxa names indicates living clades, two asterisks depict paraphyletic groupings [27]. Ages of terminal taxa are assembled from various sources (e.g., [27]). Italicised numbers are divergence estimated inferred from the stratigraphic distribution of taxa (node B) or calculated as mean between two bracketing estimates (divergence between ‘congroids’ and muraenoids). For detailed explanations see text