ABSTRACT
Anguilliforms are a distinctive group of teleosts that comprise of 820 species which are further classifi ed into 20 families and 147 genera and share a unique leptocephalus larva (Nelson 2006; Inoue et al. 2010; Johnson et al. 2011). Anguilliforms fi rst appeared as fossils in the Aptian age, about 113-119 million years ago (Mya) (Patterson 1993; Belouze et al. 2003). Johnson et al. (2011) discovered the living fossil eel Protoanguilla palau at Palau. Phylogenetic analysis and divergence time estimation based on whole mitogenome sequences from various actinopterygians indicated that P. palau is one of the most primitive and independent lineages of true eels. Its evolutionary history dates back to the Triassic Age (251-199.6 Mya) and suggests that the origin of Anguilliformes should be about 200-250 Mya (Fig. 1).
