ABSTRACT
The Mugilidae family, the only representative of Mugilomorpha, also the most primitive among the three series of the superorder Acanthopterygii, can be considered to be one of the typical marine euteleostean families showing the highly conservative 48 uniarmed karyotype. The family Mugilidae groups fish species which are distributed in all the tropical and temperate coastal marine and brackish water of the world. In the past, the family was either considered to be a representative of a distinct order or as a suborder of Perciformes. C-banding was applied to ten Mugilidae species and in all of them revealed a pericentromeric location of the heterochromatin in virtually all chromosomes, as well as its association to the major ribosomal genes at every different chromosomal location observed in different cytotypes. The cytogenetic features of the three cytotypes found in Mugilidae species are unable to identify unequivocal karyoevolutive trends within the family, especially within the all uni-armed cytotypes.
