Big fish, little divergence: phylogeography of Lake Tanganyika's giant cichlid, <i>Boulengerochromis microlepis</i>.

ABSTRACT: The largely endemic cichlid species flocks of the East African Great Lakes are among the prime examples for explosive speciation and adaptive radiation. Speciation rates differ among cichlid lineages, and the propensity to radiate has been linked to intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as sexual selection and ecological opportunity. Remarkably, only one cichlid tribe-the Boulengerochromini-comprises just a single species, Boulengerochromis microlepis, a predominantly piscivorous endemic of Lake Tanganyika and the world's largest cichlid. While the lineage diverged from its closest relatives at the onset of the Lake Tanganyika radiation >8 MYA, mitochondrial control region sequences collected in this study dated the most recent common ancestor of B. microlepis to ~60-110 KYA.

SUBMITTER: Koblmuller S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4430823 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature