scholarly journals The cichlid fishes of Lake Victoria, East Africa: the biology and evolution of a species flock

1974 ◽  
Vol Supplement 6 ◽  
pp. 1-134
Author(s):  
Peter Humphrey Greenwood
2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 140498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britta S. Meyer ◽  
Adrian Indermaur ◽  
Xenia Ehrensperger ◽  
Bernd Egger ◽  
Gaspard Banyankimbona ◽  
...  

The species flocks of cichlid fishes in the East African Great Lakes are the largest vertebrate adaptive radiations in the world and illustrious textbook examples of convergent evolution between independent species assemblages. Although recent studies suggest some degrees of genetic exchange between riverine taxa and the lake faunas, not a single cichlid species is known from Lakes Tanganyika, Malawi and Victoria that is derived from the radiation associated with another of these lakes. Here, we report the discovery of a haplochromine cichlid species in Lake Tanganyika, which belongs genetically to the species flock of haplochromines of the Lake Victoria region. The new species colonized Lake Tanganyika only recently, suggesting that faunal exchange across watersheds and, hence, between isolated ichthyofaunas, is more common than previously thought.


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