The rapid development of molecular phylogenetic analysis has provided a new path to investigate the tempo of evolution.In this work,a rather complete molecular phylogeny of the East Asian gobionid fishes was constructed based on mtDNA cytochrome b gene sequences.Molecular clock analysis was then applied to investigate the speciation tempo of this group.The phylogenetic analysis revealed four major groups that were in agreement with previous studies.Lineage numbers plotted over time indicate that gobionid li...