How many species of cichlid fishes are there in African lakes?

Turner, George F.; Seehausen, Ole; Knight, Mairi E.; Allender, Charlotte J.; Robinson, Rosanna L. (2008). How many species of cichlid fishes are there in African lakes? Molecular Ecology, 10(3), pp. 793-806. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2001.01200.x

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The endemic cichlid fishes of Lakes Malawi, Tanganyika and Victoria are textbook examples
of explosive speciation and adaptive radiation, and their study promises to yield important
insights into these processes. Accurate estimates of species richness of lineages in these
lakes, and elsewhere, will be a necessary prerequisite for a thorough comparative analysis
of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing rates of diversification. This review presents recent findings on the discoveries of new species and species flocks and critically
appraises the relevant evidence on species richness from recent studies of polymorphism
and assortative mating, generally using behavioural and molecular methods. Within the
haplochromines, the most species-rich lineage, there are few reported cases of postzygotic isolation, and these are generally among allopatric taxa that are likely to have diverged a relatively long time in the past. However, many taxa, including many which occur sympatrically and do not interbreed in nature, produce viable, fertile hybrids. Prezygotic barriers are more important, and persist in laboratory conditions in which environmental factors have been controlled, indicating the primary importance of direct mate preferences. Studies to date indicate that estimates of alpha (within-site) diversity appear to be robust. Although within-species colour polymorphisms are common, these have been taken into account in previous estimates of species richness. However, overall estimates of species richness in Lakes Malawi and Victoria are heavily dependent on the assignation of species status to allopatric populations differing in male colour. Appropriate methods for testing the specific status of allopatric cichlid taxa are reviewed and preliminary results presented.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) > Aquatic Ecology
UniBE Contributor:	Seehausen, Ole
Subjects:	500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
ISSN:	0962-1083
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
Language:	English
Submitter:	Marcel Häsler
Date Deposited:	04 Sep 2015 09:46
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:49
Publisher DOI:	10.1046/j.1365-294x.2001.01200.x
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/71520