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¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Aliah University, IIA/27, New Town, Kolkata-700160, West Bengal, India
² Department of Botany and Forestry, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, 721102, India DOI : Node Date Estimation of Diversified Species of Ray-Finned Fish Based on Morphological and Molecular (Vitellogenin 3) Characters Using Bayesian Analysis Viewed : 775 - Downloaded : 314 Fish and other oviparous and ovoviviparous animals contain vitellogenin (Vtg), an egg yolk precursor phospholipoglycoprotein, which is the prerequisite for oocyte growth during oogenesis. Vtg is also employed as a biomarker to assess the reproductive health of female fish. In this study, we select 34 ray-finned fish under the class Actinopterygii to investigate the evolutionary time scale of their diversification age based on the molecular (vtg3 gene) as well as the combined (morphological and vtg3 gene) characters using different evolutionary models in Bayesian analysis. The analysis indicates that the species of different orders evolved in different epochs. In the case of molecular-based analysis, the orders Cyprinodontiformes and Perciformes are diversified in early Eocene to Oligocene, Anabantiformes in late Eocene, Cypriniformes in Oligocene & Salmoniformes Miocene. In the case of morpho-molecular based analysis the order Cyprinodontiformes is diversified in early Eocene to Oligocene, Anabantiformes in late Eocene, Perciformes in late Eocene to Oligocene, Cypriniformes in Oligocene to Miocene & Salmoniformes Oligocene to Pliocene. However, both analyses suggest that most of the selected species are diversified in Miocene, Oligocene, Eocene, and Paleocene Epoch between 5 – 65 MYA. Keywords : Bayesian inference Evolutionary time scale Morphological traits Bony fish vtg3 gene