glires ( latin glīrēs , dormice ) is a clade ( sometimes ranked as a grandorder ) consisting of rodents and lagomorphs ( rabbits , hares , and pikas ) .

the hypothesis that these form a monophyletic group has been long debated based on morphological evidence , although recent morphological studies strongly supports the monophyly of glires ( meng and wyss , 2001 ; meng et al. , 2003 ) .

in particular , the discovery of new fossil material of basal members of glires , particularly the genera mimotona , gomphos , heomys , matutinia , rhombomylus , and sinomylus , has helped to bridge the gap between more typical rodents and lagomorphs ( meng et al. , 2003 ; asher et al. , 2005 ) .

data based on nuclear dna support glires as a sister of euarchonta to form euarchontoglires ( murphy et al. and madsen et al. 2001 ) , but some genetic data from both nuclear and mitochondrial dna have been less supportive ( arnason et al. 2002 ) .

a study investigating retrotransposon presence/absence data unambiguously supports the glires hypothesis ( kriegs et al. 2007 ) .

recent studies place scandentia as sister of the glires , invalidating euarchonta .

glires

glires <EOT> the osteology of rhombomylus ( mammalia , glires ) : implications for phylogeny and evolution of glires . bulletin of the amnh ; no . 275

video and audio broadcast and recording of the meeting of 6 . 12 . 2017 in hall of glires and multimedia

project management missions for the rehabilitation of the inn glires . the town - thorens - glieres . reference number : 16s0135

what made you want to look up glires ? please tell us where you read or heard it ( including the quote , if possible ) .

among the 59 quartets of species involving calibration points d 1 – d 7 , only 41 fitted the two - rates model for the concatenation of the three markers . among them , respectively , 1 , 3 , 6 , 7 , 17 , and 7 allowed to estimate the age of the split between sciuroidea and gliridae ( not shown ) , muridae and ctenohystrica ( not shown ) , rodent superfamilies , glires , laurasiatheria and euarchonta + glires , and placentals ( fig . 4 ) . our results , being based on ml estimates and several independent calibrating pairs of taxa , are congruent with paleontology about ages of rodent radiation and glires divergence . they support a rodent diversification at the transition between paleocene and eocene , 55 . 8 mya ( median of confidence intervals : 49 . 4–63 . 7 ; fig . 4 ) . paleontological studies place the rodent radiation at 55 mya at the paleocene - eocene boundary ( hartenberger 1998 ) . the split between rodents and lagomorphs is estimated to be 64 . 5 mya ( 57 . 3–73 . 3 ) , just at the cretaceous - tertiary boundary . these results indicate that rodents and lagomorphs diverged only at the beginning of the tertiary ( fig . 4 ) .

dorothée huchon , ole madsen , mark j . j . b . sibbald , kai ament , michael j . stanhope , françois catzeflis , wilfried w . de jong , emmanuel j . p . douzery ; rodent phylogeny and a timescale for the evolution of glires : evidence from an extensive taxon sampling using three nuclear genes , molecular biology and evolution , volume 19 , issue 7 , 1 july 2002 , pages 1053–1065 , urltoken

fig . 4 . —maximum likelihood estimations ( black circles ) and their 95 % confidence intervals ( bars ) for the divergence times between the rodentia superfamilies , the orders lagomorpha and rodentia ( glires ) , the laurasiatheria and euarchonta - glires , and the placental orders . quartet dating results are presented in descending order , and the medians of the quartet distributions are represented by empty circles and bars , indicating the median of the 95 % confidence intervals : 55 . 8 myr ( 49 . 4–63 . 7 ) ; 64 . 5 myr ( 57 . 3–73 . 3 ) ; 83 . 2 myr ( 74 . 1–94 . 4 ) ; and 101 . 2 ( 88 . 5–116 . 4 ) . the cretaceous - tertiary boundary ( k - t ) is indicated by a dashed line . the detail of species content and divergence date of each individual quartet is available upon request

divergence times were estimated using quartet dating ( rambaut and bromham 1998 ) , a method allowing each lineage to have a different rate of evolution , and implemented for nucleotide sequence analysis in the program qdate 1 . 1 . this ml method calculates the divergence date between two pairs of calibrating lineages , each one being represented by two species for which the time of divergence is known . four molecular datings were estimated : the first split within rodentia ( “r” in fig . 2 ) , the divergence between the two glires lineages ( “g” ) , the divergence between laurasiatheria and [ glires + euarchonta ] ( “l / e + g” ) , and the first split among placental mammals ( “p” ) . these molecular datings were derived from all combinations of , respectively ( 1 ) two time - calibrated pairs of rodents ( “ d 1 “ or “ d 2 “ vs . “ d 3 “ or “ d 4 “ ; fig . 2 ) , ( 2 ) one pair of rodents versus one pair of lagomorphs ( “ d 5 “ ) , ( 3 ) one pair of glires versus one pair of cetartiodactyls ( “ d 6 “ ) , and ( 4 ) one pair of paenungulates ( “ d 7 “ ) versus the remaining pairs of placentals . the seven pairs of calibrating taxa are detailed in table 1 .

our dating results on glires agree with the hypothesis that mesozoic placental divergences only involved the first basal clades of the placental tree , whereas the diversification of extant lineages occurred after the k - t boundary ( hedges et al . 1996 ; alroy 1999 ; eizirik , murphy , and o ' brien 2001 ; madsen et al . 2001 ) . dating involving other placental clades are required to verify whether the pattern observed for rodents ( i . e . , a diversification only after the k - t boundary ) is valid for other placental orders too .

molecular dating indicates a late cretaceous divergence , 83 . 2 mya ( 74 . 1–94 . 4 ; fig . 4 ) , for the last common ancestor of glires and laurasiatheria ( represented here by cetartiodactyls ) . this date is congruent with paleontological studies : ungulates have been linked to the 85 mya zhelestids ( archibald 1996 ) , and glires have been strongly related to the zalambdalestids whose oldest fossil is estimated to be 90 mya ( archibald , averianov , and ekdale 2001 ) . this estimate also agrees with the quartet dating ( 63 . 5–95 . 3 myr ) of eizirik , murphy , and o ' brien ( 2001 ) using independent calibration points . first divergences within placentals seem to occur 101 . 2 mya ( 88 . 5–116 . 4 ; fig . 4 ) , at the transition between early and late cretaceous , but there are huge variations between ages provided by different quartets . additional calibration points within laurasiatheria are likely to stabilize these estimates ( eizirik , murphy , and o ' brien 2001 ) . these molecular dates should also be confirmed in the future using other dating methods , such as for example the bayesian approach of thorne , kishino , and painter ( 1998 ) .

rodentia is the largest order of placental mammals , with approximately 2 , 050 species divided into 28 families . it is also one of the most controversial with respect to its monophyly , relationships between families , and divergence dates . here , we have analyzed and compared the performance of three nuclear genes ( von willebrand factor , interphotoreceptor retinoid - binding protein , and alpha 2b adrenergic receptor ) for a large taxonomic sampling , covering the whole rodent and placental diversity . the phylogenetic results significantly support rodent monophyly , the association of rodentia with lagomorpha ( the glires clade ) , and a glires + euarchonta ( primates , dermoptera , and scandentia ) clade . the resolution of relationships among rodents is also greatly improved . the currently recognized families are divided here into seven well - defined clades ( anomaluromorpha , castoridae , ctenohystrica , geomyoidea , gliridae , myodonta , and sciuroidea ) that can be grouped into three major clades : ctenohystrica , gliridae + sciuroidea , and a mouse - related clade ( anomaluromorpha , castoridae + geomyoidea , and myodonta ) . molecular datings based on these three genes suggest that the rodent radiation took place at the transition between paleocene and eocene . the divergence between rodents and lagomorphs is placed just at the k - t boundary and the first splits among placentals in the late cretaceous . our results thus tend to reconcile molecular and morphological - paleontological insights .

rhombomylus is a gliroid mammal endemic to several early eocene localities of central and eastern asia . it is best represented by a collection of numerous jaws and teeth , dozens of juvenile and adult skulls , and associated postcranial specimens from the early eocene yuhuangding formation at the dajian village , junxian county , hubei province , china . . . the core of the study consists of a taxonomic revision of the genus , a detailed description of the osteological morphology , extensive analyses on morphological characters , analyses on phylogeny , discussions on divergence time of the glires , and analyses on functional morphology of mastication and locomotion . in comparing all known specimens assigned to the genus , we recognize only a single species , rhombomylus turpanensis , for the genus and consider ' r . laianensis ' a junior synonym . . .

we analyze three nuclear genes that are not genetically linked and code for proteins that do not display any known biological interactions : the alpha 2b adrenergic receptor ( a2ab ) , the exon 1 of interphotoreceptor retinoid - binding protein ( irbp ) , and the exon 28 of von willebrand factor ( vwf ) . the choice of these nuclear markers was based on three considerations . first , all three sequences have successfully been used to reconstruct the phylogeny of eutherians at various taxonomic levels ( porter , goodman , and stanhope 1996 ; springer et al . 1997 a , 1997 b ; debry and sagel 2001 ; delsuc et al . 2001 ; madsen et al . 2001 ) . second , they display similar sizes and numbers of variable sites , which favors the comparison of their phylogenetic performance . third , nuclear genes have been suggested to perform better than mitochondrial ones ( springer et al . 2001 ) . the separate and combined phylogenetic analyses of a2ab , irbp , and vwf allow to ( 1 ) define new clades among rodents , ( 2 ) strongly confirm the monophyly of rodentia and glires , ( 3 ) evaluate the properties of independent markers for dating purposes , and ( 4 ) suggest a tertiary radiation of rodent families , a k - t split between rodents and lagomorphs , and a late cretaceous origin for placental orders .

fig . 2 . —maximum likelihood tree ( −lnl = −26 , 567 . 53 ) reconstructed from first and second codon positions of combined a2ab , irbp , and vwf nucleotide sequences of 40 placentals and two marsupials . branch lengths were computed assuming a single ml model for the three combined genes . nucleotide substitutions were described by a hky model with parameter κ = 1 . 78 and rate heterogeneity among sites described by an 8 - categories discrete gamma distribution with parameter α = 0 . 39 . the branch leading to the marsupial outgroup has been shortened three times . ml bp derived after 100 replicates are given for each node . note that all nodes supported by more than 58 % of bootstrap in ml do have bayesian posterior probabilities ranging from 0 . 91 to 1 . 00 . the three major rodent clades are indicated : sciuroidea + gliridae ( s + g ) , the mouse - related clade ( m ) , and ctenohystrica ( c ) . black circles indicate the nodes that have been dated using the quartet dating method ( abbreviations : e , euarchonta ; g , glires ; l , laurasiatheria ; p , placentalia ; r , rodentia ; cf . fig . 4 ) , whereas the white circles indicate the calibration points that have been used ( i . e . , the time - calibrated pairs d 2 – d 7 ; cf . table 1 )

fig . 3 . —influence of gene and species choice on quartet dating results . the 11 independent quartets of species that are statistically compatible with a two - rates model for all three markers are represented . for each quartet , four dating estimates with their 95 % confidence intervals are given : white squares for a2ab , black triangles for irbp , white circles for vwf , and black diamonds for the combination . the following divergence dates were computed : mur - cte = divergence of muridae and ctenohystrica ( based on d 1 vs . d 2 comparisons : see fig . 2 ) ; rod = radiation of rodent superfamilies ( d 1 or d 2 vs . d 3 or d 4 ) ; gli = divergence of rodentia and lagomorpha ( d 1 , d 2 , d 3 , or d 4 vs . d 5 ) ; lau - eug = divergence of laurasiatheria and euarchonta + glires ( d 1 , d 2 , d 3 , d 4 , or d 5 vs . d 6 ) . note that the age of the placental radiation has not been estimated here because no quartet fitted a two - rate constrained model for each of the three genes . the dotted lines indicate boundaries between geological periods ( from bottom to top : early - late cretaceous , k - t boundary , paleocene - eocene , and eocene - oligocene ) . the detail of species content and divergence date of each individual quartet is available upon request

base composition homogeneity of all codon positions was evaluated at the 1 % level of chi - square tests for the five data sets , a2ab , irbp , vwf , irbp + vwf , and a2ab + irbp + vwf , by comparing the nucleotide composition of each sequence with the frequency distribution assumed in the ml model . these five data sets actually displayed a significant base compositional heterogeneity for 5 , 4 , 7 , 10 , and 13 species , respectively—including 2 , 1 , 2 , 5 , and 7 glires , respectively—among the 42 mammals . a closer examination revealed that the base composition at third codon positions was responsible for this heterogeneity . for each codon position of the three genes , we computed the difference in gc content between the gc - richest sequence and the gc - poorest sequence . the difference in gc content ranges between 8 . 1 % and 16 . 9 % for the first codon position , 6 . 3 % and 10 . 3 % for the second codon position , and 24 . 7 % and 35 . 9 % for the third codon position , with vwf showing the most heterogeneous base composition . some sequences presented high ( e . g . , bradypus ) or low ( e . g . , mus , orycteropus , marsupialia ) gc content at third codon positions for the three genes . other sequences showed extreme gc values at third codon positions for one gene but presented average gc levels for the two other genes ( e . g . , geomyidae for vwf vs . a2ab and irbp ) . after exclusion of third codon positions , base composition became homogeneous for all placental taxa . because preliminary results indicated that ml reconstructions might be affected by the base composition heterogeneity at third codon positions , all subsequent ml nucleotide analyses were conducted on first + second codon positions only . no compositional heterogeneity was detected in the protein sequences .

copyright © 1999 - 2018 john wiley & sons , inc . all rights reserved

enter your email address below . if your address has been previously registered , you will receive an email with instructions on how to reset your password . if you don ' t receive an email , you should register as a new user

1 department of biology , university of california , riverside , ca 92521 , usa .

2 department of veterinary integrative biosciences , texas a & m university , college station , tx 77843 , usa .

3 san diego zoo’s institute for conservation research , escondido , ca 92027 , usa .

4 ucd school of biology and environmental science , university college dublin , belfield , dublin 4 , ireland .

5 faculdade de biociências , pontifícia universidade católica do rio grande do sul , porto alegre , rs 90619–900 , brazil .

6 institut für integrative biologie , eidgenössiche technische hochschule zurich , 8092 zurich , switzerland .

7 department of integrative biology , university of california , berkeley , ca 94720 , usa .

8 division of natural science , pepperdine university , malibu , ca 90263 , usa .

9 division of paleontology and sackler institute of comparative genomics , american museum of natural history , new york , ny 10024 , usa .

10 richard glider graduate school , american museum of natural history , new york , ny 10024 , usa .

11 department of computer science , texas a & m university , college station , tx 77843 , usa .

12 department of botany and zoology , university of stellenbosch , matieland 7602 , south africa .

15 department of biology , washington and lee university , lexington , virginia 24450 , usa .

department of biology , university of california , riverside , ca 92521 , usa .

department of veterinary integrative biosciences , texas a & m university , college station , tx 77843 , usa .

san diego zoo’s institute for conservation research , escondido , ca 92027 , usa .

ucd school of biology and environmental science , university college dublin , belfield , dublin 4 , ireland .

faculdade de biociências , pontifícia universidade católica do rio grande do sul , porto alegre , rs 90619–900 , brazil .

institut für integrative biologie , eidgenössiche technische hochschule zurich , 8092 zurich , switzerland .

department of integrative biology , university of california , berkeley , ca 94720 , usa .

division of natural science , pepperdine university , malibu , ca 90263 , usa .

division of paleontology and sackler institute of comparative genomics , american museum of natural history , new york , ny 10024 , usa .

richard glider graduate school , american museum of natural history , new york , ny 10024 , usa .

department of computer science , texas a & m university , college station , tx 77843 , usa .

department of botany and zoology , university of stellenbosch , matieland 7602 , south africa .

department of biology , washington and lee university , lexington , virginia 24450 , usa .

aaas login provides access to science for aaas members , and access to other journals in the science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions .

as a service to the community , this article is available for free . existing users log in .

download and print this article for your personal scholarly , research , and educational use .

previous analyses of relations , divergence times , and diversification patterns among extant mammalian families have relied on supertree methods and local molecular clocks . we constructed a molecular supermatrix for mammalian families and analyzed these data with likelihood - based methods and relaxed molecular clocks . phylogenetic analyses resulted in a robust phylogeny with better resolution than phylogenies from supertree methods . relaxed clock analyses support the long - fuse model of diversification and highlight the importance of including multiple fossil calibrations that are spread across the tree . molecular time trees and diversification analyses suggest important roles for the cretaceous terrestrial revolution and cretaceous - paleogene ( kpg ) mass extinction in opening up ecospace that promoted interordinal and intraordinal diversification , respectively . by contrast , diversification analyses provide no support for the hypothesis concerning the delayed rise of present - day mammals during the eocene period .

note : we only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it , and that it is not junk mail . we do not capture any email address .

message body ( your name ) thought you would like to see this page from the science web site .

molecular phylogenetic analysis , calibrated with fossils , resolves the time frame of the mammalian radiation .

© 2018 american association for the advancement of science . all rights reserved . aaas is a partner of hinari , agora , oare , chorus , clockss , crossref and counter . science issn 1095 - 9203 .

html public " - / / w3c / / dtd xhtml 1 . 0 transitional / / en " " urltoken "

guide to scientific products , instruments and services : science innovation ; meeting abstracts ( journal , magazine , 1992 ) [ worldcat . org ]

your web browser is not enabled for javascript . some features of worldcat will not be available .

your list has reached the maximum number of items . please create a new list with a new name ; move some items to a new or existing list ; or delete some items .

note : citations are based on reference standards . however , formatting rules can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study . the specific requirements or preferences of your reviewing publisher , classroom teacher , institution or organization should be applied .

the e - mail address ( es ) field is required . please enter recipient e - mail address ( es ) .

the e - mail address ( es ) you entered is ( are ) not in a valid format . please re - enter recipient e - mail address ( es ) .

i thought you might be interested in this item at urltoken title : guide to scientific products , instruments and services : science innovation ; meeting abstracts publisher : washington , dc : assoc . , 1992 - 1993 . isbn / issn : 0036 - 8075 oclc : 183350662

please choose whether or not you want other users to be able to see on your profile that this library is a favorite of yours .

add tags for " guide to scientific products , instruments and services : science innovation ; meeting abstracts " .

you may have already requested this item . please select ok if you would like to proceed with this request anyway .

worldcat is the world ' s largest library catalog , helping you find library materials online . learn more ››

don ' t have an account ? you can easily create a free account .

love words ? you must — there are over 200 , 000 words in our free online dictionary , but you are looking for one that’s only in the merriam - webster unabridged dictionary .

the story of an imaginary word that managed to sneak past our editors and enter the dictionary .

take this quiz and discover 12 words for things you didn ' t know had words .

warning : the ncbi web site requires javascript to function . more . . .

laboratoire de paléontologie , phylogénie et paléobiologie , cc064 , institut des sciences de l ' evolution umr 5554 / cnrs , université montpellier ii ; place e . bataillon , 34 095 montpellier cedex 05 , france . douzery @ urltoken

asher rj 1 , meng j , wible jr , mckenna mc , rougier gw , dashzeveg d , novacek mj .

museum für naturkunde , humboldt universität , invalidenstrasse 43 , 10115 berlin , germany . robert . asher @ urltoken

we describe several fossils referable to gomphos elkema from deposits close to the paleocene - eocene boundary at tsagan khushu , mongolia . gomphos shares a suite of cranioskeletal characters with extant rabbits , hares , and pikas but retains a primitive dentition and jaw compared to its modern relatives . phylogenetic analysis supports the position of gomphos as a stem lagomorph and excludes cretaceous taxa from the crown radiation of placental mammals . our results support the hypothesis that rodents and lagomorphs radiated during the cenozoic and diverged from other placental mammals close to the cretaceous - tertiary boundary .

research support , u . s . gov ' t , non - p . h . s .

we use cookies to enhance your experience on our website . by continuing to use our website , you are agreeing to our use of cookies . you can change your cookie settings at any time .

the timing of the origin of rodents is also controversial . fossil evidence indicates a radiation of the rodents 55 mya ( hartenberger 1998 ) , whereas molecular clocks based on a few rodent species tend to support a cretaceous origin and diversification of rodents , 89–125 mya for the divergence of murids or hystricognaths ( janke , xu , and arnason 1997 ; kumar and hedges 1998 ; cao et al . 2000 ) . recent analyses , including a broader rodent sampling , but based on single sequences , suggest that the radiation of rodent families is older than the k - t limit ( 75 myr ) ( huchon , catzeflis , and douzery 2000 ; adkins et al . 2001 ) . one should note that all molecular datings for rodents are based on different genes , different sampling , and different methods . we compare here the dating performance of three genes using quartet dating , a method to estimate molecular ages of divergence that allows for rate heterogeneity between lineages ( rambaut and bromham 1998 ) .

twenty - two rodent taxa were selected to cover the current diversity of the order , with at least one representative per family or superfamily ( see supplementary material at mbe web site : urltoken ) . all 10 sciurognath lineages were sampled ( muridae , dipodidae , geomyidae , heteromyidae , gliridae , sciuridae , aplodontidae , castoridae , anomaluromorpha , ctenodactylidae ) as well as the eight lineages that represent the whole hystricognath diversity ( thryonomyidae , petromuridae , bathyergidae , hystricidae , chinchilloidea , octodontoidea , cavioidea , erethizontoidea ) ( huchon and douzery 2001 ) . the vwf exon 28 ( 1236 aligned positions ) , the 5′ third of the irbp exon 1 ( 1227 positions ) , and the a2ab gene ( 1170 positions ) were newly determined for five ( tachyoryctes , dipodomys , thomomys , castor , and anomalurus ) , 21 ( all but mus ) , and 18 ( all but mus , rattus , and cavia ) rodent species , respectively . additionally , the two lagomorphs lepus and ochotona were sequenced for irbp and a2ab .

dna extractions and pcr reactions were conducted as described before ( huchon , catzeflis , and douzery 1999 ) , with slight modifications : 1 m betaine was included in the pcr mixture ( henke et al . 1997 ) , and annealing was performed at 50°c . the pcr primers for amplifying the a2ab , irbp , and vwf sequences have been described in stanhope et al . ( 1992 ) , springer et al . ( 1997 b ) , and huchon , catzeflis , and douzery ( 1999 , 2000 ) , respectively . when the amount of amplified dna was insufficient for direct sequencing , smaller overlapping dna fragments were obtained by reamplification of the initial pcr product and then sequenced . additional sequencing primers were designed when required . all vwf sequences , the a2ab sequences of anomalurus , aplodontia , bathyergus , castor , chinchilla , dipodomys , echimys , glis , massoutiera , petromus , thomomys , trichys , and the irbp sequences of dinomys , lepus , macropus , pedetes , and tachyoryctes were obtained manually with [ α 33 p ] ddntp . the other irbp sequences were determined using dye - terminator cycle - sequencing reactions and an applied biosystems 373a automatic sequencer . despite several attempts , it was not possible to amplify the a2ab of pedetes .

pcr amplifications of a2ab from dipus , dryomys , erethizon , lepus , marmota , tachyoryctes , and thryonomys were as previously described ( springer et al . 1997b ) , except for dryomys and lepus where 1 m betaine and 1 . 3 % dmso were added to the reaction mixture . pcr products were cloned into the pgem - t easy vector ( promega ) , and sequences were determined using the big dye - terminator cycle - sequencing kit and an abi prism 3700 dna analyser ( applied biosystems ) . clones from at least two independent pcr amplifications were sequenced to detect ambiguity caused by the pcr reaction .

accession numbers of the newly determined sequences ( aj427226–aj427270 ) are given in the supplementary material , together with those for the other species used in this study .

a2ab , irbp , and vwf sequences of 40 placentals and two marsupials were manually aligned . only few gaps had to be introduced , which were coded as missing data . a glutamic acid repeat of variable length in the a2ab gene was excluded from subsequent analyses . five nucleotide data sets were analyzed : each gene separately , vwf and irbp combined ( to assess the position of pedetidae among rodents ) , and the three genes in concatenation . one protein data set comprising the concatenation of the a2ab , irbp , and vwf amino acid sequences was also analyzed .

the models of sequence evolution used were hky85 for nucleotides and jtt for amino acids . the hky85 model was favored , relative to more complex models ( i . e . , gtr ) , because of computation time limitations . however , additional bayesian analyses ( data not shown ) indicated that the use of either gtr or hky85 did not have an impact on the phylogenetic conclusions . rate heterogeneity among dna and protein sites was described by a discrete gamma distribution with eight categories ( γ 8 ) .

neighbor - joining ( nj ) analyses with weighted average ( wave ) maximum likelihood distances were performed with phylip 3 . 573 ( felsenstein 1995 ) and waveboot 1 . 2 ( krajewski et al . 1999 ) . in these analyses the nucleotide data matrix was partitioned as follows : each codon position in each of the three genes was allowed to have its own rate , base frequency , and transition - to - transversion ratio .

maximum parsimony ( mp ) and maximum likelihood trees were inferred using paup * ( swofford 1999 ) , version 4 , releases beta 4 and 8 ; and tree - puzzle 4 . 0 . 2 ( strimmer and von haeseler 1996 ) . mp nucleotide sequence analyses were conducted with equal or differential weighting of character state changes . in the latter case , the six possible nucleotide substitutions were weighted at each codon position for each of the three genes , according to their consistency index , excluding uninformative characters ( hassanin , lecointre , and tillier 1998 ) .

before running individual and combined heuristic ml paup * searches on nucleotide sequences , the program tree - puzzle 4 . 0 . 2 was used to estimate the transition - transversion parameter ( κ ) and the parameter ( α ) of the gamma distribution of the hky + γ 8 model . for amino acid sequences , ml reconstructions under the jtt + γ 8 model were obtained using the quartet - puzzling method with tree - puzzle 4 . 0 . 2 .

bayesian phylogenetic analyses were performed with mrbayes 2 . 1 ( huelsenbeck and ronquist 2001 ) . the metropolis - coupled markov chain monte carlo sampling approach was used to calculate posterior probabilities . prior probabilities for all trees were equal , starting trees were random , tree sampling was done every 20 generations , and burn - in values were determined empirically from the likelihood values . to check for consistency of results , four markov chains were run simultaneously , twice for 200 , 000 and twice for 500 , 000 generations .

for nucleotide sequence analysis , third codon positions were excluded from ml and bayesian analyses because of their base compositional heterogeneity between taxa ( as evaluated by tree - puzzle 4 . 0 . 2 and paup * ) , whereas they were kept in nj - wave—where each codon position had its own rate—and mp analyses .

robustness of the nodes of the phylogenetic trees was assessed by bootstrap ( felsenstein 1985 ) with paup * and reliability percentages ( rp ) with tree - puzzle 4 . 0 . 2 . for nj - wave and mp analyses , 1 , 000 bootstrap replicates were computed . for ml analyses , computing time limitations forced us to estimate bootstrap percentages ( bp ) after only 100 replicates , with hky + γ 8 parameters set to the values estimated for the best tree , with nj starting trees , and with 1 , 000 rearrangements of tbr branch swapping . rp were estimated after 10 , 000 puzzling steps .

the first step was to reconstruct alternative tree topologies . paup * heuristic searches under a single hky + γ 8 model and incorporating a topological constraint were conducted in order to identify the highest - likelihood topology that satisfied a given hypothesis ( e . g . , the paraphyly of rodents ) . second , the alternative topologies previously identified were evaluated and compared relative to the best ml topology found for the nucleotide sequences . statistical comparisons were conducted with partitioned maximum likelihood on the nucleotide matrix and on the protein matrix of combined data . for the nucleotide sequences , to account for differences in evolutionary substitution processes between codon positions and between the three genetically independent nuclear markers , first and second codon positions were distinguished for a2ab , irbp , and vwf . this resulted in the definition of six partitions of sites . six independent hky + γ 8 models were thus assumed for each of these six partitions . the topologies previously identified after paup * heuristic searches were evaluated and compared under the more complex 6 - partitions model with paml ( yang 1997 ) , version 3 . 0d . in the latter case , all ml parameters—i . e . , 6 transition - transversion rate parameters , 6 α parameters , and 6 × 81 branch parameters—were reestimated by paml for each evaluated topology . partitioned log - likelihoods were then compared using the kishino and hasegawa ( 1989 ) test with the shimodaira and hasegawa ( 1999 ) correction .

because of computation time limitations , a similar approach could not be applied for the protein sequences . a single partition was considered , and topology comparisons were done under a jtt + γ 8 model assumed for the concatenated protein data set . the 81 branch parameters were reestimated by paml for each evaluated topology , and the kishino and hasegawa ( 1989 ) test with the shimodaira and hasegawa ( 1999 ) correction was performed .

rate constancy was tested with likelihood ratio tests ( lrt ) ( felsenstein 1988 ) , and only quartets that fitted a two - rate constrained model ( i . e . , each dating pair of the quartet does have its own rate ) , relative to a free - rate model ( i . e . , each branch of the quartet has a different rate ) , were kept in the dating estimations . because rate heterogeneity between sites can affect estimation of divergence date ( rambaut and bromham 1998 ) , sequence evolution was described by the hky + γ 8 model . quartet dating results were described by the median of the distribution of the quartet date estimates , and the associated lower and upper limits of the 95 % confidence interval were those of the median quartet .

all tree - building methods either on nucleotide or on protein sequences ( nj - wave , standard and differentially weighted mp , ml , and bayesian approach ) provided the same overall phylogenies , with minor topological variations involving only weakly supported nodes . considering ml analysis on nucleotide sequences as best representing the results of the individual genes , only those results will be detailed here . for comparative purposes , quartet puzzling reliability percentage observed on protein sequences ( rp prot ) and bayesian posterior probabilities for nucleotides ( pp nuc ) and proteins ( pp prot ) are however indicated for the combined data set .

the trees reconstructed from first plus second codon positions of each of the three genes are given in figure 1 . all three trees suggest the monophyly of rodents and that of sciuroidea ( marmota + aplodontia ) , geomyoidea ( dipodomys + thomomys ) , hystricognathi ( bathyergus , thryonomys , petromus , trichys , cavia , chinchilla , echimys , and erethizon ) , and ctenohystrica ( massoutiera + hystricognaths ) . discrepancies between the trees always involve weakly supported nodes ( i . e . , not involving two conflicting nodes with bp ml > 50 ) , except for the position of dipodidae and the relationships among cetartiodactyla . according to a2ab and irbp , dipodidae are the sister clade of muridae ( bp ml = 67 and 74 , respectively ) , whereas vwf clusters dipodidae with geomyoidea ( bp ml = 65 ) . the grouping of dipodidae with geomyidae may be an artifact resulting from similar base compositions and rapid rates of evolution of their vwf sequences ( data not shown ) . within cetartiodactyla , a2ab and irbp place lama in the most basal position relative to other cetartiodactyls ( bp ml = 51 and 81 , respectively ) , whereas vwf clusters lama with sus ( bp ml = 66 ) .

in spite of having similar lengths , the three nuclear genes do not contain the same phylogenetic signal . each gene strongly supports some nodes , but these nodes might be different from one gene to another , and none is able to solve the whole rodent phylogeny . for example , only a2ab provides high support for rodent monophyly ( bp ml = 83 ) , irbp for myodonta monophyly ( i . e . , muridae + dipodidae , bp ml = 74 ) , and vwf for ctenohystrica monophyly ( bp ml = 91 ) . the results also indicate that the resolving power of each gene is not restricted to a given taxonomic level . for example , a2ab , unlike vwf , is able to solve deep relationships like rodent monophyly as well as more recent relationships like sciuroidea ( bp ml = 98 ) but not intermediate clades like ctenohystrica ( bp ml = 41 ) , whereas vwf does so .

when codon positions 1 and 2 of the combined a2ab + irbp + vwf genes were analyzed under a single hky + γ 8 model , the log - likelihood of the best topology was lnl = −26 , 415 . 56 . assuming six independent hky + γ 8 models for each of the six partitions yielded lnl = −25 , 988 . 88 and resulted in a significant increase of log - likelihood ( lrt statistics = 853 . 36 ; df = 430 ; p < 0 . 0001 ) . the ml parameters estimated for the six partitions are given in table 2 . all three genes exhibit similar base compositions , on first as well as on second codon positions . the slowest evolving partition is the second codon position of a2ab , followed by—with increasing relative rate—a2ab ( first codon position ) , irbp ( second ) , vwf ( second ) , irbp ( first ) , and vwf ( first ) . second codon positions are more heterogeneous than first positions in terms of substitution rates for the three markers , but they display a higher transition - transversion rate parameter for irbp and vwf .

although the a2ab , irbp , and vwf trees do not show any major topological incongruences , crossed shimodaira - hasegawa tests indicate that each nucleotide data set rejects the highest - likelihood topology of the two other data sets ( table 3 ) . however , none of the three genes rejects the ml topology obtained from the combined data set . consequently , this a posteriori observation suggests that the three genes can be combined and that the combined data tree accordingly appears to be the “best provisional phylogenetic hypothesis” ( adkins et al . 2001 ) . the combination of a2ab , irbp , and vwf leads to a topology that stabilizes the phylogenetic position of rodents among mammals and contributes to resolve most of the relationships between rodent families .

phylogenetic analyses based on first plus second codon positions of the three concatenated nuclear genes all indicate the monophyly of rodents , its support being the highest under the weighted mp ( not shown ) and the maximum likelihood approaches ( bp ml = 95 : fig . 2 ; rp prot = 74 ) . maximum likelihood tests of various phylogenetic hypotheses indicate that the alternative to the monophyly of rodents is significantly less likely ( table 4 ) . the bayesian approach also provides a posterior probability of 1 . 00 for the monophyly of rodents for both nucleotide and protein sequences ( trees not shown ) . our results thus confirm statistically the monophyly of rodentia with an extended sampling of this order—including all sciurognath families and hystricognath superfamilies—and with representatives of all other placental orders . in fact , with the recent increase of available complete mitochondrial genomes , rodent monophyly is no longer statistically rejected either ( cao et al . 2000 ; mouchaty et al . 2001 ) . it thus appears that the paraphyly of rodents will be difficult to defend with the broader taxonomic sampling within the order and with the growing number of molecular markers supporting their monophyly .

our results suggest the division of rodentia into three major infraordinal clades . the first one comprises squirrel - and dormouse - related animals : sciuroidea ( sciuridae [ squirrels ] + aplodontidae [ mountain beavers ] ) and gliridae ( dormice ) . the second clade contains mouse - related rodents : myodonta ( muridae [ mouse , rats ] + dipodidae [ jerboas ] ) , castoridae ( beavers ) , geomyoidea ( geomyidae [ pocket gophers ] + heteromyidae [ pocket mice ] ) , and anomaluromorpha ( anomaluridae [ scaly - tailed flying squirrels ] + pedetidae [ springhares ] ) . the third clade ( ctenohystrica sensu huchon , catzeflis , and douzery 2000 ) contains gundi and guinea pig–related rodents : ctenodactylidae and hystricognathi . the interrelationships between these three clades are poorly resolved . none of the three bifurcating topologies connecting them involves significantly different log - likelihood ( 0 . 28 < p sh < 0 . 32 ) , and the results are sensitive to the method of reconstruction and the data set considered . ctenohystrica clusters with the mouse - related clade for ml and bayesian nucleotide analyses ( bp ml = 40 : fig . 2 ; pp nuc = 0 . 83 ) . however , bayesian protein analysis clusters ctenohystrica with the squirrel - and dormouse - related clade ( pp prot = 0 . 70 ) , and quartet puzzling protein analysis clusters the mouse - related clade with the squirrel - and dormouse - related clade ( rp prot = 42 ) .

the monophyly of sciuroidea ( sciuridae and aplodontidae ) has been supported by morphological ( e . g . , lavocat and parent 1985 ; meng 1990 ) and molecular data ( huchon , catzeflis , and douzery 1999 , 2000 ; adkins et al . 2001 ; debry and sagel 2001 ) . the increase in taxonomic sampling did not reduce the support for this clade ( bp ml = 100 ; rp prot = 85 ) . in agreement with debry and sagel ( 2001 ) , we observe that sciuroidea are characterized by a unique insertion of three amino acids in the irbp gene . the sister clade of sciuroidea appears to be the gliridae ( fig . 2 ) . the existence of this suprafamilial clade has been suggested by morphological ( e . g . , lavocat and parent 1985 ; meng 1990 ) and mitochondrial ( reyes et al . 2000 ) studies ; however , similar to other molecular studies ( e . g . , huchon , catzeflis , and douzery 1999 ; adkins et al . 2001 ; debry and sagel 2001 ; montgelard et al . 2002 b ) , the support here remains moderate to strong . it is noteworthy that the support is higher with protein sequences ( pp prot = 1 . 00 ; rp prot = 75 ; p sh < 0 . 05 ) than with nucleotide sequences ( pp nuc = 1 . 00 ; bp ml = 58 ; p sh < 0 . 15 ) .

the grouping of anomaluromorpha , castoridae , geomyoidea , and myodonta ( fig . 2 ) has never been suggested by morphological and paleontological observations . castoridae has usually been related to sciuridae because both families share the sciuromorph and sciurognath states ( brandt 1855 ; tullberg 1899 ) . however , some morphological studies could not confirm this relationship ( bugge 1985 ; lavocat and parent 1985 ; meng 1990 ) , and it has even been suggested that castoridae might be more closely related to muridae than to sciuridae ( meng 1990 ) . anomaluridae and pedetidae were considered as enigmatic families , possibly related to ctenodactylidae or hystricognathi ( e . g . , luckett and hartenberger 1985 ; jaeger 1988 ) . geomyoidea has , less ambiguously , been associated with the muridae ( e . g . , wahlert 1985 ; ryan 1989 ) .

the mouse - related clade is moderately to strongly supported ( pp nuc and pp prot = 1 . 00 ; bp ml = 65 : fig . 2 ; rp prot = 43 ) , and alternative hypotheses cannot be significantly rejected ( table 4 ) . such a molecular support and lack of morphological evidence might reflect that we are dealing with a phylogenetic artifact , but independent molecular studies identified the same node , although it was not explicitly noticed and discussed ( adkins et al . 2001 ; murphy et al . 2001 a ) . consequently , the naturalness of this new superfamilial arrangement must be seriously considered in future studies . another interesting aspect of this mouse - related clade is that it includes animals displaying different jaw patterns and having different geographical origins . myodonta has been suggested to have originated from asian hystricomorph rodents , anomaluromorpha might have originated from african hystricomorph rodents , and geomyidae and castoridae are sciuromorph rodents from north america ( e . g . , vianey - liaud 1985 ; hartenberger 1998 ) . this suggests a complicated biogeographical history and an ancient origin for this rodent clade . this group might have a paleocene or an early - eocene origin because muridae , dipodidae , anomaluridae , geomyoidea , and castoridae are rooted in—or related to—early - and middle - eocene families : cricetidae , zapodidae , zegdoumyidae , eomyidae , and eutypomyidae , respectively ( hartenberger 1998 ) .

the lack of resolution for the branching order of the three clades anomaluromorpha , castoridae + geomyidae , and myodonta is illustrated by the ml and bayesian analyses . anomalurus connects either with castor + geomyidae ( pp nuc = 0 . 56 and pp prot = 0 . 33 ; bp ml = 29 ; fig . 2 ) or with myodonta ( pp nuc = 0 . 40 and pp prot = 0 . 36 ; bp ml = 37 ) .

the grouping of ctenodactylidae and hystricognathi in a ctenohystrica clade has been strongly supported by the vwf gene ( huchon , catzeflis , and douzery 2000 ) and the ghr gene ( adkins et al . 2001 ) . our results confirm these observations ( pp nuc and pp prot = 1 . 00 ; bp ml = 100 ; rp prot = 93 ) , and breaking the monophyly of ctenohystrica is a significantly worse alternative ( p sh < 0 . 03 ; table 4 ) , as is the case for constraining ctenodactylidae to branch with other sciurognaths ( p sh < 0 . 03 ) . among hystricognathi , the relationships obtained agree with the conclusions of huchon and douzery ( 2001 ) . hystricognathi is divided into three clades : hystricidae , phiomorpha s . s . ( i . e . , bathyergidae , thryonomyidae , and petromuridae ) and caviomorpha ( i . e . , octodontoidea , cavioidea , erethizontoidea , and chinchilloidea ) . it is interesting to note that the increase of sequence length favors a basal position of hystricidae ( pp nuc and pp prot = 1 . 00 ; bp ml = 87 ; rp prot = 74 ) , but alternative hypotheses are not significantly less likely ( p sh < 0 . 14 ; table 4 ) .

following tullberg ( 1899 ) , rodents have been divided into two suborders—sciurognathi and hystricognathi . according to our molecular data , hystricognathi remains a valid clade ( bp ml = 100 ; fig . 2 , rp prot = 93 ) , but the monophyly of sciurognathi is statistically rejected ( see earlier ; table 4 ) . an alternative classification divided rodents into myomorpha , sciuromorpha , and hystricomorpha ( brandt 1855 ) . the contents of these groups changed according to the authors , and we here follow the classification of mckenna and bell ( 1997 ) . constraining the monophyly of myomorpha , i . e . , clustering muridae + dipodidae with geomyoidea and gliridae , is significantly less likely than the best ml topology with our a2ab + irbp + vwf nucleotide and protein data ( p sh < 0 . 05 ; table 4 ) . the grouping of aplodontidae , sciuridae , and castoridae into sciuromorpha is marginally rejected ( p sh < 0 . 10 ) . hystricomorpha actually corresponds to hystricognaths and thus appears monophyletic . these results suggest that the current subordinal classification of rodents should be thoroughly revised .

the timing of the diversification of extant placental orders is heavily debated . according to paleontology , they diverged in the paleocene , 65–55 mya ( e . g . , alroy 1999 ) . molecules rather suggest that placentals were already diversified in the cretaceous ( review in bromham , phillips , and penny 1999 ) . however , various molecular studies give deviating datings . their estimations are generally based on few calibration points and use either distance ( e . g . , hedges et al . 1996 ; janke , xu , and arnason 1997 ; springer et al . 1997 b ; kumar and hedges 1998 ; waddell et al . 1999 ; review in bromham , phillips , and penny 1999 ) , or bayesian ( cao et al . 2000 ) , or ml ( eizirik , murphy , and o ' brien 2001 ) approaches .

address for correspondence and reprints : emmanuel j . p . douzery , laboratoire de paléontologie , paléobiologie et phylogénie - cc064 , institut des sciences de l ' evolution umr 5554 / cnrs , université montpellier ii , place e . bataillon , 34 095 montpellier cedex 05 , france . douzery @ urltoken

fig . 1 . —maximum likelihood trees and corresponding bp computed from first and second codon positions of each nuclear marker . the length of the branch leading to marsupials has been reduced three times . the following ml parameters of the hky + γ 8 model maximize the log - likelihood for a2ab ( −lnl = 6 , 858 . 67 ) : transition - transversion parameter κ = 1 . 61 , α = 0 . 33 , for irbp ( −lnl = 8 , 824 . 71 ) : κ = 2 . 11 , α = 0 . 41 , and for vwf ( −lnl = 10 , 399 . 48 ) : κ = 1 . 58 , α = 0 . 52 . nodes labeled with asterisks do not occur in the bootstrap consensus tree

this work would not have been possible without the essential contribution of all collectors who provided mammalian tissues now housed in the collection of montpellier : marina baskevich ( for dryomys ) , dona l . dittmann ( thomomys ; collection of genetic resources , louisiana state university museum of natural sciences ) , jean - marc duplantier ( lepus ) , chris g . faulkes ( bathyergus ) , piotr gambarian ( dipus ) , laurent granjon ( thryonomys , lepus ) , jean - claude gautun ( anomalurus ) , patrick gouat ( massoutiera ) , jack hayes and marilyn banta ( dipodomys ) , robert s . hoffmann ( marmota ) , reginald hoyt and john trupkiewicz ( petromus ; zoological society of philadelphia ) , john a . w . kirsh ( erethizon ) , vincent laudet ( chinchilla ) , conrad matthee ( pedetes ) , david nolta ( aplodontia ) , e . pelé and vitaly volobouev ( tachyoryctes ) , thierry petit ( macropus ; zoo de la palmyre , france ) , philippe perret ( cavia ) , rob stuebing ( trichys ) , and the zoo du lunaret in montpellier ( castor ) .

we wish to thank ron debry for sharing the dipodomys spectabilis vwf sequence , christophe douady for providing the ochotona irbp sequence , jean - louis hartenberger , jean - jacques jaeger , and laurent marivaux for useful paleontological discussions and comments , jacques demaille and denis pugnère ( institut de génétique humaine de montpellier , cnrs upr 1142 ) for computing facilities , and emma teeling for bench advice with regard to the automatic sequencer .

this work was supported by acc - sv7 ( réseau national de biosystématique ) , acc - sv3 ( réseau coordonné par d . mouchiroud ) , european community tmr network “mammalian phylogeny” fmrx - ct98 - 0221 ( to m . s . , f . c . , and w . de j . ) , and the genopole région montpellier languedoc - roussillon and the action inter - epst bioinformatique 2000–2002 ( to e . d . ) . d . h . acknowledges the financial support of a lavoisier grant from the french ministry of foreign affairs . this is contribution number 2002 - 008 of the institut des sciences de l ' evolution de montpellier ( umr 5554 - cnrs ) .


giant african threadfin ( polydactylus quadrifilis ) is a fish species in the family polynemidae .

it is native to coastal parts of the east atlantic from mauritania to angola , also ranging into freshwater rivers .

this fish supports important fisheries and can reach up to 2 m ( 6.6 ft ) in length .

giant african threadfin

giant african threadfin <EOT> giant african threadfin ( polydactylus quadrifilis ) is a fish species in the family polynemidae .

light tackle spinning in the surf and lagoons of gabon for jacks , tarpon , giant african threadfin ( capitaine ) , and cubera snapper .

dietary composition and biometric characteristics of the giant african threadfin , polydactylus quadrifilis ( cuvier , 1829 ) from , nigeria | t . f . | journal of biology , agriculture and healthcare

garth stood over the mighty threadfin to be sure the next wave didn’t release him . i ran down to see my prize and was in instant awe . this giant african threadfin was a giant ! at first i could hardly handle him . his strength pushed me away twice before i finally got my hands under him enough to lift . he was easily 40lbs !

[ … ] any fun if he didn’t . i took a deep breath and went about my business . it wasn’t long ago i hoisted the giant african threadfin up the beach in much more difficult conditions . this one would be easy and it [ … ]

a lure fished slowly along the bottom — often intended for threadfin — is a sure tarpon producer .

the mission ' s conrad botes returns to gabon today on his second trip with tourette fishing . the first one was a massive success . several guys caught huge tarpon off the beach on fly , while plenty of pitbull - sized cubera snapper , a few giant african threadfin and loads of jack crevalle ( the local ' trash fish ' ) were caught too . [ . . . ]

" when the rains arrive in gabon , " says mark murray , " the giant african threadfin come out to play . " murray says these exotic game fish hunt in big shoals " right behind the shore dump , and are arguably one of the strongest - fighting fish one can encounter in the surf " that love eat to lures , spoons or jigs . they grow to over 100 pounds .

the anticipation for everyone was no less than thrilling . while i still knew i had a threadfin the south africans weren’t so sure . finally , the wave i needed came just as the fish let go of bottom . i lifted and felt him give and with my rod over my shoulder pointed towards the sea i ran up the beach . the lunker of a fish rode the wave perfectly and when it receded the fish stayed on his side on the beach . a giant african threadfin on the fly off the beach !

it was nice on the beach at the mouth of the estuary . there were a few rolling tarpon we couldn’t reach and garth wellman took down this enormous longfin jack . but this brute was our only fish in daylight . things got so slow that we considered calling it an early night until mark assured us after dark is the best time for everyone’s dream fish for the trip , the giant african threadfin .

it was dark before 7 and that’s when the relentless blind casting began . six of us lined the beach around a point where the water rushes past in the dropping tide . mark feels the giant african threadfin are mostly deep and far from the beach except every once in a while they move close and this is the spot . the problem is keeping a fly down deep in the zone for more than a few seconds . the tidal current rips so hard that even with my 450 grain sonar sink fly line the fly gets swung back to the surface too fast . i envision literally needing to bump a threadfin in the nose in those short seconds much like hitting the lottery .

one of the best times to fish for the fabulous threadfin is following a big storm ( note the clouds heading away , on the horizon ) .

the biggest threadfin in the world are found here , a fish that murrays says is unique to west africa . the aggressive predators are available in large numbers along gabon beaches .

i’d have thought differently but mark was quick to announce that threadfin are delicate and our photos session must take place fast . the last thing i wanted to do was hurt this magnificent creature any more so i lifted for a couple shots then john pulled the fly and i ran him down to the water . waves crushed me at the edge of the beach drop but i held my breath and enjoyed the power of the threadfin one last time as he yanked himself away with one swift kick of his massive tail . mission accomplished !

if anyone were to compile a list of the world’s most exciting surf - fishing spots , there can be little doubt that the west african country of gabon would be at or near the top . in recent years , its reputation among globe - trotting surf enthusiasts has been growing , and as these dramatic , brilliant images taken by mark murray of tourette fishing reveal , with good reason . adjacent to ndogo lagoon at the southern boundary of loango national park are " some of the longest stretches of untouched coastline left on the african continent , " according to the outfitter . for more information on fishing here , visit tourette fishing ( which is based in africa but organizes trips for anglers from all over ) .

like tarpon , cubera snapper will nail jigs and other lures fished slowly in the surf . " that ' s one of the reasons fishing gabon is so exciting , " says murray . " you can be targeting a certain species — such as threadfin , as this angler was doing — but you ' ll run into surprise catches like this . "

there’s a ton of wildlife in this area including lowland gorillas and chimpanzees . i can’t tell you how cool seeing one of these primates would be . the chances are slim though because they’re wild and have more jungle to hide in than anywhere . there have been lots of elephants however enjoying the estuary and we saw several on the boat ride to the fishing tonight . these are a smaller african species called the forest elephants . last night we had two walk right out on the beach while fishing .

furthermore , the monsters we’re after aren’t likely stopped on traditional leader systems of class tippet breaking strengths of 20lb . certainly not a tarpon when there’s a rocky reef near . i’ve learned from my african friends to fish straight 80lb flouro . this system stirs alarm with old - timers that feel the leader “must” have a weaker breaking point than the fly line and backing . no doubt they’re correct and i emphasized this in my saltwater fly fishing book . but times change and the modern philosophy is use heavy tippet and hold the fish close so he never reaches the backing and count on the newer stronger than ever cores of fly lines not to break .

there was one last stellar fish taken after the threadfin and that was a cubera snapper by conrad . the big fish for sure cruise the beach after dark . it’s just that tonight there were not many and it was a lot of hard work to capture what we did . we returned to camp for a very late night of beers and dinner . we made it to bed slightly before 1 am and mark is knocking on our doors at 4 : 30 . this is going to be one of those “hardest core” weeks that i thrive on !

if you read this blog however , you know i’m a believer and my persistence is that of an insane man . i traveled 9 , 000 miles for a threadfin and dang it i’m not going home without a fight . at 9 pm , two solid hours of relentless casting in the dark began to wear on me . it was so black i simply stared at the opening of my stripping basket being sure my strips of line made it in there for a productive next cast . honestly , i was falling asleep standing up in thigh deep water .

as the guys came around to see the fight , the fish steadily cleared my reel of fly line . i was using my scientific angler demo reel – not exactly my first choice but it was too late to second guess my decision . sa lined the attractive reel with the 450 grain sonar at the factory to help me save time packing . the run was powerful yet not speedy and my drag was tight and my backing crackled off the reel in a strange sound . undoubtedly the fish had size . by now some of the guys suggested big snapper while others a jack , both of which i am more than familiar with their fights . i kept saying , “no . this is a threadfin ” .

i told myself ten more casts , something i’ve been doing at the end of every hard fishing day since i was a kid . on my third cast my heavy fly got hit with the strangest thump i’ve ever felt from a fish in my life . so strange that at first i wasn’t sure it was a fish . but after a good strip set and a lift of the rod , without any doubt it was a fish . the strange thump was followed by heavy and violent headshakes . the kind that sever a 40lb tippet . the kind of power that if you’re squeezing your rod to tight the thrust could break your wrist ( very few anglers have any idea what i’m talking about but i promise you it’s true ) . i just knew and yelled “ threadfin on ! ”

greek , poly = a lot of + greek , daktylos = finger ( ref . 45335 )

marine ; freshwater ; brackish ; demersal ; depth range 15 - 55 m ( ref . 10799 ) . tropical ; 22°n - 5°s , 26°w - 13°e ( ref . 57343 )

eastern atlantic : senegal to angola ( ref . 57402 ) . also reported from mauritania ( ref . 55783 ) .

maturity : l m ? range ? - ? cm max length : 200 cm tl male / unsexed ; ( ref . 57402 ) ; common length : 150 cm tl male / unsexed ; ( ref . 3659 ) ; max . published weight : 75 . 0 kg ( ref . 7386 )

dorsal spines ( total ) : 9 ; dorsal soft rays ( total ) : 12 - 13 ; anal spines : 3 ; anal soft rays : 11 - 12 . diagnosis : pectoral fin with 4 threadlike filaments ( ref . 57402 , 81658 ) . pectoral fin inserted very low on body , generally somewhat longer than upper part of fin ( ref . 57402 ) .

occurs in shallow coastal waters , over sandy and muddy bottoms , sometimes in brackish habitats ( ref . 57343 , 81658 ) . enters estuaries ( ref . 57402 ) , occasionally caught in fresh water ( ref . 57402 , 81658 ) . very large specimens are only found in marine waters ( ref . 81658 ) . feeds on crustaceans and fishes ( ref . 10799 , 81658 ) . flesh fairly tasteful ( ref . 57402 ) .

motomura , h . , 2004 . threadfins of the world ( family polynemidae ) . an annotated and illustrated catalogue of polynemid species known to date . fao spec . cat . fish . purp . rome : fao . 3 : 117 p . ( ref . 57343 )

phylogenetic diversity index ( ref . 82805 ) : pd 50 = 0 . 5000 [ uniqueness , from 0 . 5 = low to 2 . 0 = high ] .

bayesian length - weight : a = 0 . 00724 ( 0 . 00465 - 0 . 01128 ) , b = 3 . 08 ( 2 . 95 - 3 . 21 ) , in cm total length , based on lwr estimates for this species & genus - body shape ( ref . 93245 ) .

trophic level ( ref . 69278 ) : 4 . 0 ±0 . 66 se ; based on food items .

resilience ( ref . 69278 ) : medium , minimum population doubling time 1 . 4 - 4 . 4 years ( k = 0 . 34 - 0 . 41 ; assuming tm = 3 - 4 ) .

vulnerability ( ref . 59153 ) : high to very high vulnerability ( 69 of 100 ) .

your igfa account is your personal portal to member benefits , including world records , videos , photos , and the latest in game fish conservation .

the international game fish association is a not - for - profit organization committed to the conservation of game fish and the promotion of responsible , ethical angling practices through science , education , rule making and record keeping .

© 2015 international game fish association , 300 gulf stream way , dania beach , fl 33004 .

if you look at a map of gabon we’re on the southern coast exactly at the border of loango national park . it’s a long way from idaho and takes a few days to adjust to the time change . because of this i slept like garbage last night . it was miserable waking up at 4 : 15 am . but then i realized i was fly fishing in gabon and filled my yeti tumbler with coffee and stimulated my brain on the 20 - minute boat ride to the mouth of the estuary where we fished last night .

it was plenty dark when we arrived . the winds were soft and the surf and waves easy to handle . today i brought my flimsy stripping basket and it made line control for casting slightly easier . the skies were full of puffy tropical clouds and moon and stars poked through every hole . by the time i got done being the weatherman john travis hooked up .

john got his fly on the water first and several casts in his reel started screaming and saw him against the moonlight backing up the beach . he had a tremendous fish pulling him around and things looked hectic . next we heard the splashes out in the darkness . john had a tarpon on .

landing a tarpon on a fly from a flats boat can be a chore for two guys working together . hooking and landing one off the beach here in gabon seems impossible especially when you consider the ripping currents and a reef not far from where we cast . but stronger than ever fly rods , reels and lines make the once impossible now possible .

tourette fishing carefully selected the anglers for this fly fishing exploratory trip to gabon . john wasn’t only fishing straight 80lb tippet but he knows all the tricks to break a tarpons spirit fast . he had his fish on the beach in a notable ten minutes . the quick battle was a sight to behold !

there was more action as well . as we photographed johns tarpon conrad botes hooked another but lost him after several jumps . as he was reeling in to check over the rig he hooked and landed a longfin jack and mike lasota beached a nice jack as well . as for me , i better put down the camera and get my game face on soon .

by 7 am the tide was useless for fishing the estuary mouth . mark murray knew 7 was the end of it so he had a plan and we paired up in the boats and headed in the estuary to fish for snapper and jack . i picked up my 9 - weight jungle rod and heaved some clouser’s at the mangroves from the front while mike did the same from the back .

there was action on almost every cast with snappers and grunter . i caught a new species called the mangrove jack . he’s a snapper not a jack . what’s nice about this catch for me is that i lost a huge one of these in sudan in 2014 right as i reached for him . finally , i can add one of the handsome fellas to my list .

i also added the guinean barracuda ( sphyraena afra ) to my species list . this one’s a baby but the species gets gigantic . unfortunately , the aggressive fish have made themselves too vulnerable in the area and the big boys are rare these days . i noticed the difference from other cuda species immediately with all the beautiful colors on this fishes back .

we packed in the morning session around 11 and headed for camp for lunch and beers . i adjusted my beach set up while mike napped and the south africans tied flies . the fun breather lasted until 4 pm when we left for the evening session during prime tide .

my technique was cast as long as i could which isn’t far with a 450 grain from a beach at night . then mend some slack line out as the system sinks . the second i felt the current swing against my fly line i made a strip then fed it back out . then another and another but by the time there was hope for a fourth strip and feed my fly was slamming into the beach down current . you can see how short a time the fly is in the zone .

forty feet away i could make out the silhouette of john and slightly further i could see conrad . beyond them but too dark to see was arno and garth . mike was on his own mission tonight somewhere searching for less surf to contend with . i made a deal with myself to be the last guy to call it quits but dang everyone was fishing hard . at last , i could hear john reeling in followed by conrad . their silhouettes met and up the beach they went . then arno and garth met them – the night was coming to an end .

the hard pulling fish never went more than about fifty feet in the backing . he fought back and forth around this distance for a good five minutes . then he started to give up . it was a huge relief when my fly line returned to the reel but it took another five minutes to get in my running line and finally see the sinking head of the line .

ten minutes in the fish had taken me a hundred yards down the beach . bad for me was here the surf was big and the beach was steep . i made my first attempt to surf him in on the beach but the lip at the sand drop was too much . the big fish , although tired now , anchored himself in the trough . each time a big wave came i timed it to lift hard and although the first few tries failed i could feel him start to budge .

we stayed fishing on the beach until 11 : 30 pm . while i relaxed shooting the bull with mark most of the time i did put in a few more casts that led to something quite humorous . my unlit headlamp was tight over my yeti ball cap . it was uncomfortably tight and i continued to adjust my hat . eventually i forgot the headlamp was there and ripped my hat off to shake it around to make it more comfortable and off went my headlamp out to sea . first full night – headlamp gone . not good .

a full ten minutes later i saw a red light flash off the drop - off far down the beach . it didn’t register with my spinning mind at first but the second time it flashed i charged the direction . it kept going off but each flash of red i got closer till finally i lunged and dove and miraculously retrieved my lamp . i forgot to take off my hat though and in trade for the lamp i lost my yeti hat .

while my dumb moves were stacking up it seemed like a good trade – the hat for a lamp ( even though it’s not waterproof and may not ever work again ) . then low and behold when we finally gave it up for the night , john came up the beach with my yeti hat in hand . it washed up against his feet in the blackness of the ocean . tonight was indeed my lucky night !

congrats jeff – what an awesome trip . have a blast for the rest of the week !

i started fly fishing at age 7 in the lakes and ponds of new england cutting my teeth on various sunfish , bass , crappie and stocked trout . i went to northland college in ashland , wisconsin , where i graduated with a naturalist degree while i discovered new fishing opportunities for pike , muskellunge , walleyes and various salmonids found in lake superior and its tributaries .

from there i headed west to work a few years in the yellowstone region to simply work as much as most people fish and fish as much as most people work . i did just that , only it lasted over 20 years working at the jack dennis fly shop in jackson , wy where i recently departed . now it’s time to work for " the man " , working for myself that is .

i plan to pursue my love to paint fish , lecture on any aspect of fly fishing you can imagine and host a few trips to some of the most exotic places you can think of . my ultimate goal is to catch as many species of fish on fly possible from freshwater to saltwater , throughout the world . i presently have taken over 325 species from over 50 countries !

give us your email and we ' ll notify you when jeff posts a new blog post .

no time for starlets , autographs , glitz or glamour . . . where’s the fly shop on hollywood blvd ?

the dot on the map shows the location of gabon ' s loango national park .

when longfin and crevalle jacks move into the surf , double and triple hookups are constant .

fishing inside the lower ndogo lagoon estuary offers great action in addition to the beaches . the igfa all - tackle world - record longfin jack ( caranx fischeri ) of 36 + pounds was caught here .

in few places can an angler tussle with big fish under the watchful eyes of elephants . the area is known as africa ' s eden ; says murray : " anglers can often end up sharing the beaches of gabon with forest elephants , hippos , sitatunga ( elegant , swamp - loving antelopes ) or lowland gorillas .

this is not a game fish on the bucket list of most guests who fish gabon with tourette fishing . their bad , says murray . " the guitarfish is hands down one of the most underrated species one can target here . " these very strong fish that share characteristics of both sharks and rays seldom touch lures , " but a well - placed bait on the edge of a sandbar will get you hooked up with one of these beasts almost every time ! " murray says .

while this isn ' t actually a huge seatrout or weakfish , the resemblance is unmistakable . it ' s a senegalese kob , in fact a very close cousin of those species . kobs are a prized group of the drum / croaker family found from south africa north into the mediterranean . slow - fished bucktails jigs or soft plastics are hard to beat .

an angler tossing a lure into the chaos of game fish tearing up the bait along these beaches is guaranteed an instant hookup .

even smaller longfin jacks made superb targets in the estuary for fly - rodders .

some species of barracuda grow much larger than this handsome specimen caught from a skiff .

re - rigging lures occupies time daily . " the size and power of fish off gabon beaches and in the estuaries mean they ' re really hard on tackle , " says murray .

it ' s typical for a boat to have an entire lagoon to itself .

the first hour of the day is always a good time for action on gabon beaches . the light tackle this angler uses makes even smaller jacks a blast to catch .

while they may be caught during daylight hours , big cubera snapper become most active in the darkness .

when the bite is hot , the action comes hot and heavy . here , one longfin is beached and three anglers are battling fish — likely jacks but , says murray , very possibly other species such as tarpon or cubera snapper .

elongate , shallow - running minnow lures are particularly effective for longfin jacks in the estuary when fished fast with hard twitches .

catching big tarpon in the surf is what murray terms " an exceptional experience . " while this is a big fish , by gabon standards it ' s typical , since tarpon exceeding 250 pounds have been hooked off these beaches .

crashing surf on one side and a line of elephants ambling past on the other remind anglers that they ' re nowhere near kansas anymore .

as popular as throwing lures may be among gabon anglers , bait accounts for some great catches . murray says circle hooks help ensure quick release . tourette guides often invert a chunk of mullet , sewing it up to keep its shape in the surf .

if anglers tire of casting , they can toss out a live mullet on a circle hook . this huge longfin was caught that way , in the estuary .

real - world woes fall away for anglers casting on gabon ' s remote , peaceful beaches .

many products featured on this site were editorially chosen . sport fishing may receive financial compensation for products purchased through this site .

urltoken is part of the bonnier fishing group , a division of bonnier corporation .

copyright © 2018 sport fishing magazine . a bonnier corporation company . all rights reserved . reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited .

html public " - / / w3c / / dtd xhtml 1 . 0 transitional / / en " " urltoken "

please add our address " contact @ urltoken " into your email contact list .

this journal follows iso 9001 management standard and licensed under a creative commons attribution 3 . 0 license .

this article is issued from wikipedia - version of the 9 / 3 / 2014 . the text is available under the creative commons attribution / share alike but additional terms may apply for the media files .