Genidens Castelnau, 1855

MP 100, BI 1, ML 100

(Figs 1–3, 12B, 14)

Type species: Bagrus genidens Valenciennes, 1840 .

Diagnosis

Temporal fossa very reduced (39, 1> 0); dentary teeth restricted to mesial two-thirds (116, 1> 0); posterolateral processes of urohyal short (160, 1> 0); posterolateral processes of urohyal two-thirds as long as distal portion of bone (162, 1> 2); posterior portion of second basibranchial short and wide (167, 2> 3).

Ambiguousoptimization: Mesialborderwithparieto-supraoccipital as long as distal portion of bone (36, 1> 0); tooth plates attached to vomer by ligaments (57, 0> 1); otolith posterior margin rounded (74, 1> 0); posterolateral processes of urohyal as long as or longer than distal portion of bone (162, 0> 1).

Included species

Genidens barbus (Lacepède, 1803)

Genidens genidens (Cuvier, 1829)

Genidens machadoi (Miranda Ribeiro, 1918)

Genidens planifrons (Higuchi, Reis & Araújo, 1982) .

Habitat and distribution: Brackish and marine waters, east and southern South America (Fig. 12).

Remarks

Total-evidence analysis supports the monophyly of Genidens, as reported in previous phylogenetic studies (Betancur-R. 2009, Marceniuk et al. 2012), with a new hypothesis of relationships. The species of Genidens form a species flock, as evidenced by their shallow genetic divergences (Cerqueira et al, unpublished work).