Ricefishes constitute a group of fresh and brackish water fishes that range from the Indian subcontinent throughout coastal Southeast Asia into China, Japan, and across the Indo-Malayan archipelago into Sulawesi (Celebes) and the Philippines. There are approximately 20 species of ricefishes classified in four genera. Despite the broad use of ricefishes in experimental biology, including the fields of genetics and embryology, and their intriguing distribution pattern that spans many traditional biogeographic boundaries in the Indo-Australian region, little is known about the comparative anatomy and evolutionary relationships among the species. This research project will focus on the goal of reconstructing the evolutionary history of ricefishes using comparative anatomical and developmental data. Freshwater fishes will be collected in Sulawesi (pending final permission to collect) and Madang Province, Papua New Guinea so that we have a better understanding of fish fauna of these geologically complex islands. A hypothesis of the distributional history of ricefishes and their close relatives will be used as a basis for understanding the complex evolution and distribution of the Indo- Australian biota.
