Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Suckers (Fish, Catostomidae) from the Eocene of China account for the family’s current disjunct distributions

  • Published:
Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Unequivocal Eocene suckers from China are for the first time reported here. This discovery demonstrates that catostomids of the Eocene Epoch (some 55-35 Ma ago) are scattered widely on mainland Asia as well as western North America. The present day disjunct distribution pattern of catostomids, with 68 extant species widespread in North America and the northern part of Middle America and only two in the restricted areas of Asia, is the result of their post-Eocene decline in Asia due to the competitive pressure from cyprinids, their Late Cenozoic radiation in North America, and the vicariant and dispersal events triggered by the changed biogeographic landscape. All of these prove to be a historical product of the geological, biological, and climatic changes throughout the Cenozoic.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Smith, G. R., Phylogeny and biogeography of the Catostomidae, freshwater fishes of North America and Asia, in Systematics, Historical Ecology, and North American Freshwater Fishes((ed. Mayden, R. L.), Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1992, 778–826.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Burr, B. M., Mayden, R. L., A new species ofCycleptus (Cypriniformes: Catostomidae) from Gulf slope Drainages of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, with a review of the distribution, biology, and conservation status of the genus, Bull. Alabama Mus. Nat. Hist., 1999, 20: 19–57.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Laboratory of Hydrobiology, Hubei, Fishes of Changjiang(in Chinese), Beijing: Science Press, 1976, 1–14, 150–152.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Lian, Z. S., Cypriniformes: Catostomidae, in Fishes of Fujian Province (in Chinese), Part I. Fuzhou: Fujian Science and Technology Press, 1984, 226–228.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Darlington, P. J. Jr., Zoogeography: the Geographical Distribution of Animals, New York: Wiley, 1957, 33.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gilbert, C. R., Composition and derivation ofthe North American freshwater fauna, Florida Science, 1976, 39: 104–111.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Sytchevskaya, E. K., Paleogene freshwater fish fauna ofthe USSR and Mongolia, Joint Soviet-Mongolian Paleontol. Exp. Trans (in Russian with English summary), 1986, 29: 1–157.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Briggs, J. C., Biogeography and Plate Tectonics, New York: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Cope, E. D., On the Tertiary coal and fossils of Osino, Nevada, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1872, 12: 478–481.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cope, E. D., The vertebrata of the Tertiary formations of the West, Book 1, in Rept. U. S. Geol. Suev. Terr. (ed. Hayden, F. V.), 1884, 1009.

  11. Cope, E. D., Fossil fishes from British Columbia, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1893, 45: 401–402.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Wilson, M. V. H., Oldest knownEsox (Pisces: Esocidae), part of a new Paleocene teleost fauna from western Canada, Can. J. Earth Sci., 1980, 17(3): 307–312.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Cavender, T. M., Review of the fossil history of North American freshwater fishes, in The Zoogeography of North American Freshwater Fishes ((eds., Hocutt, C. H., Wiley, E. O), New York: Wiley, 1986, 699–724.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Nelson, J. S., Fishes of the World, 2nd ed, New York: Wiley, 1984, 127–130, 409.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Cavender, T. M., Freshwater fish remains from the Clarno Formation, Ochoco Mountains of North-central Oregon, The Ore. Bin., 1968, 30: 125–141.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Wilson, M. V. H., Middle Eocene freshwater fishes from British Columbia, Life Sci. Contr. Roy. Ontario. Mus., 1977, 113 1–61.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Wilson, M. V. H., Year classes and sexual dimorphism in the Eocene catostomid fish †Amyzon aggregatum, J. Vertebr. Paleontol., 1984, 3(3): 137–142.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Grande, L., Eastman, J. T., Cavender, T. M., †Amyzon gosiutensis, a new catostomid fish from the Green River Formation, Copeia, 1982, 1982: 523–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Bruner, J. C., Comments on the genus †Amyzon (Family Catostomidae), J. Paleont., 1991, 65: 678–686.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Cross, F. B., Mayden, R. L., Stewart, J. D., Fishes in the western Mississippi drainage, in The Zoogeography of North American Freshwater Fishes ((eds., Hocutt, C. H., Wiley, E. O,). New York: Wiley, 1986, 363–412.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Miller, R. R., Smith, G. R., Origin and geography of the fishes of Central Mexico, in The Zoogeography of North American Freshwater Fishes, ((eds., Hocutt, C. H., Wiley, E. O.,) New York: Wiley, 1986, 487–518.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Hussakof, L., The fossil collected by the Central Asiatic expedition, Amer. Mus. Novit., 1932, 553: 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Tang, X., Anew fossil fish from Linli, Hunan, Vert. PalAsiat. (in Chinese), 1959, 1: 211–213.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Cheng, C. C., Fossil fishes from the Early Tertiary of Hsiang-Hsiang, Hunan, with discussion of age of the Hsiawanpu Formation, Vert. PalAsiat (in Chinese with English summary), 1962, 6: 333–343.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Wang, J. K., Li, G. F., Wang, J. S., The Early Tertiary fossil fishes from Sanshui and its adjacent basin, Guadong, Palaeontologia Sinica (in Chinese with English summary), whole number 160, New Ser. C, 1981, 22: 1–90.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Chang, M. M., Zhou, J. J., A brief survey of the Chinese Eocene ichthyofauna, Kaupia, Darmstadter Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte, 1993, Heft 2: 157–162.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Chang, M. M., Chen, Y. Y., Late Mesozoic and Tertiary ichthyofaunas from China and some puzzling patterns of distribution, Vert. PalAsiat, 2000, 38: 161–175.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Forster, J. R., An account of some curious fishes sent from Hudson Bay, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, 1773, 63: 149–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Chu, Y. T., Comparative studies on the scales and on the pharyngeals and their teeth in Chinese cyprinids, with particular reference to taxonomy and evolution, Biol. Bull. St. John’s Univ., 1935, 2: 1–290.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Eastman, J. T., The pharyngeal bones and teeth of catostomid fishes, Amer. Midl. Nat., 1977, 97: 68–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Smith, G. R., Late Cenozoic freshwater fishes of North America, Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 1981, 12: 163–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Briggs, J. C., Introduction to the zoogeography of North American fishes, in The Zoogeography of North American Freshwater Fishes ((eds., Hocutt, C. H., Wiley, E. O), New York: Wiley, 1986, 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Prothero, D. R., The chronological, climatic, and paleogeographic background to North America mammalian evolution, in Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America ((eds., Janis, C., Scott, K. M., Jacobs, L. L), Vol. I: Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulatelike Mammals, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 9–36.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Janis, C. M., Tertiary mammal evolution in the context of changing climates, vegetation, and tectonic events, Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 1993, 24: 467–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Liu, H. T., Su, D. C., Pliocene fishes fishes from Yüshe Basin, Shansi, Vert. PalAsiat. (in Chinese with English summary), 1962, 6: 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Zhang, M. M., Zhou, J. J., Qin, D. R., Tertiary fish fauna from coastal region of Bohai Sea, Mem. Inst. Vert. Paleont. Paleoanth. Acad. Sin. (in Chinese with English summary), 1985, 17: 1–60.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Zhou, J. J., The Cyprinidae fossils from Middle Miocene of Shanwang basin, Vert. PalAsiat (in Chinese with English summary), 1990, 28: 95–127.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Sytchevskaya, E. K., Neogene freshwater fish fauna of Mongolia, Joint Soviet-Mongolian, Paleontol. Exp. Trans. (in Russian with English summary), 1980, 39: 1–140.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Chang, M. M., Chen, Y. Y., Tong, H. W., Anew Miocene xenocyprinine (Cyprinidae) from Heilongjiang Province, northeast China and succession of late Cenozoic fish faunas of east Asia, Vert. PalAsiat (in Chinese with English summary), 1996, 34: 165–183.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Cavender, T. M., The fossil record of the Cyprinidae, in Cyprinid Fishes Systematics, Biology and Exploitation ((eds., Winfield, I. J., Nelson, J. S,), Great Britain: St. Edmundsbury Press, 1991, 34–54.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Nelson, J. S., Fishes of the World, 3rd ed, New York: Wiley, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Grande, L., Repeating patterns in nature, predictability, and “impact” in science, in Interpreting the Hierarchy of Nature from Systematic Patterns to Evolutionary Process Theories ((eds., Grande, L., Rieppel, O), New York: Academic Press, 1994, 61–84.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Beard K. C., East of Eden: Asia as an important center of taxonomic origination in mammalian evolution, Dawn of the Age of Mammals in Asia, Bull. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist. (eds., Beard K. C., Dawson nM.R.), 1998, 34: 5–39.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, 100044, Beijing, China

    Mee-mann Chang, Jiajian Zhou & Pingfu Chen

  2. Natural History Museum, University of Kansas, 66045-2454, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Desui Miao

  3. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, 430027, Wuhan, China

    Yiyu Chen

Authors
  1. Mee-mann Chang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Desui Miao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yiyu Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jiajian Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Pingfu Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mee-mann Chang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chang, Mm., Miao, D., Chen, Y. et al. Suckers (Fish, Catostomidae) from the Eocene of China account for the family’s current disjunct distributions. Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci. 44, 577–586 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02875332

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02875332

Keywords

Search

Navigation