Progress of Studies on the Phylogeny and Geographic Distribution Pattern of Catfish Glyptosternoid (Sisoridae) in China

Eight genera and twenty-three species of glyptosternoid fish (Sisoridae) have been recorded in China. However, there is some dispute about the taxonomic status and validity of some species distributed in Lancangjiang and Nujiang of Yunnan province, and some species of genera Pareuchiloglanis and Euchiloglanis in southwest area of Sichuan province. Molecular biology and microscopic techniques have been only partically helpful in resolving the dispute of species status and for the study of phylogeny. Even results obtained by the same author using morphology and molecular biology in different years have yielded conflicting results. Therefore, we have reexamined the taxonomic status and validity of certain species of glyptosternoid fish. The distribution pattern of glyptosternoid fish and differentiation of genera and species are closely related to the three uplifts of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau. The differentiation of glyptosternoid fish occurred in the great water drainages, among the different tributaries, and even the upper and lower reaches of the same drainage. The differentiation course of glyptosternoid fish included two processes. One was due to vicariance caused by natural geographic obstructions and another was a dispersal process caused by ecological adaptation. These two processes intersected, resulting in an unusually complex differentiation and distribution of glyptosternoid fish. Our future objectives are to collect data for all recorded species, to find more taxonomic data, and to combine the techniques of morphology and molecular biology in order to refine the classification, phylogeny and the geography distribution of glyptosternoid fish.