THE EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS OF 2 FAMILIES OF COTTOID FISHES OF LAKE BAIKAL (EAST SIBERIA) AS SUGGESTED BY ANALYSIS OF MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA

Fragments of mtDNA genes Cyt B, ATPase 6, and ATPase 8 of six cottoid fishes species of Lake Baikal (East Siberia) were amplified and sequen ced. In addition mtDNAs of the same fish were subjected to restriction analysis. The data obtained were used to con struct phylogenetic tree s. The topology of the ATPase tree differs from those of the Res (rest riction) and Cyt B trees. Clustering of species within the trees confi rms the viewpoint of Taliev (1955, Baicalian Sculpins (Cottoidei)) acc ording to which Baikalian cottoids originate from two ancestral forms. The times of branching obtained do not confirm the existing viewpoint according to which the two golomyankas (Comephorus baicalensis and Co mephorus dybowskii) are pre-Baikal (Myocene) relicts: these two specie s may have originated 1.2-1.8 million years ago in Baikal, and they se em to represent an example of rapid morphological evolution which resu lted in the formation of a new family.