''Amia'', commonly called bowfin, is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of bony fish related to

gar Gars are members of the family Lepisosteidae, which are the only surviving members of the Ginglymodi, an ancient holosteian group of ray-finned fish, which first appeared during the Triassic, over 240 million years ago. Gars comprise seven livin ...

s in the infraclass

Holostei Holostei is a group of ray-finned bony fish. It is divided into two major clades, the Halecomorphi, represented by a single living species, the bowfin (''Amia calva''), as well as the Ginglymodi, the sole living representatives being the gars (Le ...

. They are regarded as

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

relicts A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

, being the sole surviving species of the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Amiiformes The Amiiformes order of fish has only one extant species, the bowfin (''Amia calva''). These Amiiformes are found in the freshwater systems of North America, in the United States and parts of southern Canada. They live in freshwater streams, r ...

, which dates from the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

to the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

, persisting to the present. There is one living species in ''Amia'', ''

Amia calva The bowfin (''Amia calva'') is a bony fish, native to North America. Common names include mudfish, mud pike, dogfish, grindle, grinnel, swamp trout, and choupique. It is regarded as a relict, being the sole surviving species of the Halecomorphi ...

'', and a number of

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species which have been described from the fossil record.

Evolution and phylogeny

Competing

hypotheses A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obser ...

and debates continue over the evolution of ''Amia'' and relatives, including their relationship among basal extant teleosts, and organization of

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

s. Bowfin are the last remaining member of

Halecomorphi Halecomorphi is a taxon of ray-finned bony fish in the clade Neopterygii. The sole living Halecomorph is the bowfin (''Amia calva''), but the group contains many extinct species in several families (including Amiidae, Caturidae, Liodesmidae, S ...

, a group that includes many extinct species in several families. Halecomorphs were generally accepted as the

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

Teleostei Teleostei (; Ancient Greek, Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest class (biology), infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of a ...

but not without question. While a halecostome pattern of

neopterygian Neopterygii (from Greek νέος ''neos'' 'new' and πτέρυξ ''pteryx'' 'fin') is a subclass of ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii). Neopterygii includes the Holostei and the Teleostei, of which the latter comprise the vast majority of extant f ...

clades was produced in morphology-based analyses of extant

actinopterygian Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or ho ...

s, a different result was produced with fossil taxa which showed a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

Holostei. Monophyletic Holostei were also recovered by at least two

nuclear gene A nuclear gene is a gene whose physical DNA nucleotide sequence is located in the cell nucleus of a eukaryote. The term is used to distinguish nuclear genes from genes found in mitochondria or chloroplasts. The vast majority of genes in eukaryote ...

analyses, in an independent study of fossil and extant fish, and in an analysis of ultraconserved genomic elements. The extant ray-finned fish of the subclass Actinopterygii include 42 orders, 431 families and over 23,000 species. They are currently classified into two infraclasses,

Chondrostei Chondrostei is a group of non-neopterygian ray-finned fish, while the term originally referred to a paraphyletic group of all non-neopterygian ray-finned fish, it was redefined by Patterson in 1982 to be a clade comprising the Acipenseriformes (w ...

(

holosteans Holostei is a group of ray-finned bony fish. It is divided into two major clades, the Halecomorphi, represented by a single living species, the bowfin (''Amia calva''), as well as the Ginglymodi, the sole living representatives being the gars (Le ...

) and

Neopterygii Neopterygii (from Greek νέος ''neos'' 'new' and πτέρυξ ''pteryx'' 'fin') is a subclass of ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii). Neopterygii includes the Holostei and the Teleostei, of which the latter comprise the vast majority of extant f ...

(teleost fishes). Sturgeons, paddlefish, bichirs and reed fish compose the thirty-eight species of chondrosteans, and are considered relict species. Included in the over 23,000 species of neopterygians are eight relict species comprising gars and the bowfin. Cladogram of basal actinopterygians and neopterygians

Cladogram of basal actinopterygians and neopterygians

Infraclass Neopterygii

Neopterygians are the second major occurrence in the evolution of ray-finned fish and today include the majority of modern bony fish. They are distinguished from their earlier ancestors by major changes to the jaws, shape of the skull, and tail. They are divided into three divisions: * Division 1. Order Lepisosteiformes – the relict gars which include extant species of

s that first appeared in the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

. * Division 2. Order

– the relict bowfin, (

halecomorphi Halecomorphi is a taxon of ray-finned bony fish in the clade Neopterygii. The sole living Halecomorph is the bowfin (''Amia calva''), but the group contains many extinct species in several families (including Amiidae, Caturidae, Liodesmidae, S ...

ds), the only extant species in the order

which date back to the

Triassic period The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

. * Division 3. Division Teleostei – the

stem group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. ...

from which modern fish arose, including most of the

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

we are familiar with today.

Species

List of species. * ''

'' Linnaeus 1766 (Bowfin) * ''

Amia godai Amia, AMIA, or AMiA may refer to: * ''Amia'' (fish), a genus of fish *American Medical Informatics Association * Anglican Mission in the Americas *Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina **AMIA ...

'' Yabumoto & Grande, 2013 (Miocene of Japan) * †'' "Amia" hesperia'' Wilson (Eocene Okanagan Highlands) * †''Amia pattersoni'' Grande & Bemis, 1998 * †''Amia scutata'' Cope 1875

Genome evolution

The bowfin

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...

contains an intact

ParaHox The ParaHox gene cluster is an array of homeobox genes (involved in morphogenesis, the regulation of patterns of anatomical development) from the Gsx, Xlox ( Pdx) and Cdx gene families. Regulatory gene cluster These genes were first shown to be ...

gene cluster A gene family is a set of homologous genes within one organism. A gene cluster is a group of two or more genes found within an organism's DNA that encode similar polypeptides, or proteins, which collectively share a generalized function and are o ...

, similar to the

bichir Bichirs and the reedfish comprise Polypteridae , a family of archaic ray-finned fishes and the only family in the order Polypteriformes .Helfman GS, Collette BB, Facey DE, Bowen BW. 2009. The Diversity of Fishes. West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Pub ...

and to most other

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

s. This is in contrast, however, with

teleost Teleostei (; Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Tel ...

fish, which have a fragmented ParaHox cluster, probably because of a

whole genome duplication Paleopolyploidy is the result of genome duplications which occurred at least several million years ago (MYA). Such an event could either double the genome of a single species (autopolyploidy) or combine those of two species (allopolyploidy). Bec ...

event in their lineage. The presence of an intact ParaHox gene cluster suggests that bowfin ancestors separated from other fish before the

last common ancestor In biology and genetic genealogy, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as the last common ancestor (LCA) or concestor, of a set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all the organisms of the set are descended. The ...

of all

s appeared. Bowfin are thus possibly a better model to study vertebrate genome organization than common teleost

model organism A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...

s such as

zebrafish The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family ( Cyprinidae) of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (and thus often ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4064288 Amiiformes Ray-finned fish genera Fish genera with one living species