Taxonomy
The evolutionary lineage of the butterfly kingfish is more primitive and quite different from that of the rest of the scombrids. Additionally, the morphology of this species is substantially different from that of the others – some suggest that it might belong in a different family altogether. At present, however, morphology and nuclear phylogeny provide support that Gasterochisma is the basal Scombrid, and that both its genus, Gasterochisma, and its subfamily, Gasterochismatinae, remain as monotypic taxa under the family Scombridae.
The following cladogram shows the most likely evolutionary relationships between the butterfly kingfish and the tunas, mackerels, spanish mackerels and bonitos.
| Butterfly kingfish, in the family Scombridae | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cladogram: With 51 different species in the Scombridae family, the butterfly kingfish sits uniquely, apart from the rest – it is the only Scombrid species that does not belong to the Scombrinae subfamily. |
| Wikispecies has information related to: Gasterochisma melampus |
Read more about this topic: Butterfly Kingfish