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Dryad

Data from: New osteological characteristics identify the first stem sleeper goby (Gobioidei, Odontobutidae) from the Upper Eocene

Bauer, Elena1; Cerwenka, Alexander2; Schliewen, Ulrich2; Reichenbacher, Bettina1

Published Aug 22, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7pvmcvf36

Data files

Aug 22, 2025 version files 72.51 MB

Abstract

Amongst Gobioidei, one of the most diverse orders of teleost fishes, the families Odontobutidae (sleeper gobies) and Rhyacichthyidae are considered ‘basal gobioids’ and are therefore particularly interesting for understanding gobioid evolutionary history. However, their fossil record currently consists of only three extinct odontobutid species (two skeleton-based, one otolith-based). The aim of the study associated with this dataset (Bauer et al. 2025 in Papers in Palaeontology) was to investigate the possible relationship of one of the oldest known gobioid fossils, †Paralates chapelcornerensis from the Upper Eocene of southern England, to these families. To achieve this, osteological differences between Odontobutidae and Rhyacichthyidae were newly investigated using 19 extant species from museum collections. This taxon set included both genera of the Rhyacichthyidae, five genera of the Odontobutidae (including Terateleotris; representing 78% of all odontobutid genera), one genus of the Eleotridae (Eleotris Bloch & Schneider 1801), two of the Butidae (Oxyeleotris Bleeker 1874; Bostrychus Lacepède 1801), one of the Gobiidae (Gobius Linnaeus 1758), as well as Trichonotus Bloch & Schneider, 1801 (Trichonotidae) and Apogon Lacepède 1801 (Apogonidae). Both Trichonotus and Apogon were selected as outgroups because the Trichonotidae is the sister group of the Gobioidei, and Apogonidae is closely related to Trichonotidae + Gobioidei (Thacker et al. 2015). To ensure that characters were consistent between species and capable of distinguishing between genera, three species each of Odontobutis and Trichonotus were included. The analysis identified 17 osteological characters (15 newly described) that are different between Odontobutidae and Rhyacichthyidae. These characters were used for comparative morphology and phylogenetic analyses (maximum parsimony, Bayesian inference) to determine whether †Paralates can be assigned to either the Odontobutidae or Rhyacichthyidae.

This Dryad dataset provides an osteological atlas (Supplementary Data S1 in Bauer et al. 2025 in Papers in Palaeontology) illustrating the studied skeletal structures for †Paralates, Rhyacichthyidae and Odontobutidae, Eleotris (Eleotridae), Oxyeleotris and Bostrychus (both Butidae), Gobius (Gobiidae) and the used outgroups Trichonotus and Apogon.