COMPARATIVE OSTEOLOGY OF THE FAMILY CREEDIIDAE (PERCIFORMES, TRACHINOIDEI), WITH COMMENTS ON THE MONOPHYLY OF THE GROUP 1 Ierecê de Lucena Rosa 2 ABSTRACT A comparative osteological study of the crediid genera Schizochirus Waite, 1904, Creedia Ogilby, 1898, Limnichthys Waite, 1904, Tewara Griffin. 1933, Crystallodytes Fowler, 1923 and Chalixodytes Schultz, 1943 reveals new characters of taxonomic significance for the group, such as dentary bone not completely toothed, lower arm of posttemporal not reaching skull, anterior tip of urohyal on second or third basibranchial and posterior tip of ectopterygoid reaching posterior margin of orbit. KEYWORDS. Perciformes, Trachinoidei, Creediidae, osteology. INTRODUCTION The family Creediidae presently includes seven genera and 16 nominal species of marine fishes commonly known, due to their burrowing habits, as sandburrowers. They are small, reaching a maximum length of 86mm. Creediids occur in tropical and subtropical areas of the Indian and Pacific oceans, mostly in shallow water, over sandy or gravei bottoms. Three of the creedid genera, Schizochirus Waite, 1904 (type-species, S. insolens Waite, 1904), Apodocreedia Beaufort, 1948 (type-species A. vanderhorsti) and TewaraGnfiin, 1933 (type-species T. cranwellae Griffin, 1933) are respectively, restricted to Austrália, Southeast Africa and New Zealand. Creedia Ogilby, 1898 [type-species C. clathrisquamis Ogilby, 1898 = C. haswelli (Ramsay, 1881)] is found primarily in Austrália but one of its species occurs in Japan; Crystallodytes Fowler, 1923 (type-species C. cookei Fowler, 1923) is distributed in the Central Pacific and Easter Island. The two remaining genera, Limnichthys Waite, 1904 (type-species L. fasciatus Waite, 1904) and Chalixodytes Schultz, 1943 (type-species C. tauensis Schultz, 1943) are widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific. 1. Part of the author's Ph.D. thesis, presented at the University of Alberta, Canada. 2. Universidade Federal da Paraíba CCEN Depto. Sistemática e Ecologia 58059-900 -Joào Pessoa, Paraíba -Brasil. Iheringia, Sér. Zool., Porto Alegre, (78): 45-66, 2 mar. 1995
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