Despite dozens of morphology and DNA based phylogenies of the Loricariidae, our understanding of the evolutionary history of this highly diverse and ecologically and commercially important family remains quite coarse. In 2015 I published the first comprehensive, genus-level molecular phylogeny for the Hypostominae, the most morphologically and taxonomically diverse subfamily of the Loricariidae. This study revealed the need for widespread systematic revision and dramatically changed our understanding of the family's morphological, ecological and biogeographic diversification. Specializations for eating wood, for example, were thought to have originated only twice based on phylogenies inferred from morphological traits, whereas molecular data strongly support a third independent origin. Also highly apparent in the molecular phylogeny is an abundance of Guiana Shield endemic clades and lineages, supporting the geologically ancient highlands of northern South America as an important region for the family's early diversification. This phylogeny is now being used with a variety of comparative methods to investigate morphological, ecological and biogeographical diversifications within the Loricariidae. I am also conducting combined analyses of molecular and morphological datasets with the goal of identifying morphological synapomorphies that can serve as the basis of a revised taxonomy. More taxonomically comprehensive species-level phylogenetic studies of several subclades are also in preparation or already in press (see below), as is a complete revisitation of results for the entire family using a NGS, targeted sequence capture approach.