scholarly journals The Adaptive Radiation of Cichlid Fish in Lake Tanganyika: A Morphological Perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsumi Takahashi ◽  
Stephan Koblmüller
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Ancient Lakes ◽  
Species Assemblage ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
Morphological Studies ◽  
Rapid Speciation ◽  
Explosive Speciation

Lake Tanganyika is the oldest of the Great Ancient Lakes in the East Africa. This lake harbours about 250 species of cichlid fish, which are highly diverse in terms of morphology, behaviour, and ecology. Lake Tanganyika's cichlid diversity has evolved through explosive speciation and is treated as a textbook example of adaptive radiation, the rapid differentiation of a single ancestor into an array of species that differ in traits used to exploit their environments and resources. To elucidate the processes and mechanisms underlying the rapid speciation and adaptive radiation of Lake Tanganyika's cichlid species assemblage it is important to integrate evidence from several lines of research. Great efforts have been, are, and certainly will be taken to solve the mystery of how so many cichlid species evolved in so little time. In the present review, we summarize morphological studies that relate to the adaptive radiation of Lake Tanganyika's cichlids and highlight their importance for understanding the process of adaptive radiation.

scholarly journals Depth and substratum differentiations among coexisting herbivorous cichlids in Lake Tanganyika

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 160229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroki Hata ◽  
Haruki Ochi
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Rocky Shore ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Species Number ◽  
Niche Segregation ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
Feeding Territory ◽  
Shed Light

Cichlid fish in Lake Tanganyika represent a system of adaptive radiation in which eight ancestral lineages have diversified into hundreds of species through adaptation to various niches. However, Tanganyikan cichlids have been thought to be oversaturated, that is, the species number exceeds the number of niches and ecologically equivalent and competitively even species coexist. However, recent studies have shed light on niche segregation on a finer scale among apparently equivalent species. We observed depth and substratum preferences of 15 herbivorous cichlids from four ecomorphs (i.e. grazer, browser, scraper and scooper) on a rocky littoral slope for 14 years. Depth differentiation was detected among grazers that defended feeding territories and among browsers with feeding territories. Cichlid species having no feeding territory also showed specificity on depth and substratum, resulting in habitat segregation among species that belong to the same ecomorph. Phylogenetically close species did not occupy adjacent depths, nor the opposite depth zones. Our findings suggest that apparently equivalent species of the same ecomorph coexist parapatrically along depth on a few-metre scale, or coexist with different substratum preferences on the rocky shore, and this niche segregation may have been acquired by competition between encountering equivalent species through repetitive lake-level fluctuations.

scholarly journals Colour-assortative mating among populations of Tropheus moorii , a cichlid fish from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa

2005 ◽  
Vol 273 (1584) ◽  
pp. 257-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Salzburger ◽  
Harald Niederstätter ◽  
Anita Brandstätter ◽  
Burkhard Berger ◽  
Walther Parson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Cichlid Fish

Differential attack by a cichlid fish on resident and non-resident fish of another cichlid species

Behaviour ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 149 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Awata ◽  
Masanori Kohda ◽  
Haruki Ochi
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Previous Experience ◽  
Alternative Mechanism ◽  
Differential Attack ◽  
Dear Enemy ◽  
Resident Fish ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
Dear Enemy Effect

AbstractAn algivorous cichlid, Variabilichromis moorii( Vm), defends permanent territories in Lake Tanganyika, Africa. A zoobenthivorous cichlid, Neolamprologus mustax( Nm), spends 60% of daylight hours foraging in Vmterritories, from which other zoobenthivorous fishes are chased out and consequently which are much richer in prey animals than areas outside of Vmterritories. We conducted a field experiment to examine whether Nmresidents and non-residents received different degrees of attacks from Vm. Nmfish were caught in their territories, released at a point distant from these territories, and followed to observe interactions with Vmfish. The frequency of attacks received by the displaced Nmfish was greater than attacks received by Nmresidents, indicating that Nmresidents had easier access to Vmterritories than non-residents did. A possible mechanism for this is reduced aggression of Vmtowards Nmresidents, as a result of the ‘dear enemy’ effect that has been reported in territorial contests between rivals. An alternative mechanism is that tolerance towards Nmdiffers among Vmfish and Nmresidents selectively visit more tolerant Vmfish due to previous experience while non-residents randomly approach both tolerant and hostile Vmfish. The ability of Vmto discriminate between Nmresidents and non-residents is essential to the former mechanism but not to the latter. To more specifically examine which mechanism works in the Vm– Nmcommensal system, we will need to follow individually identified Vmfish interacting with Nmresidents and non-residents.

The Lake Tanganyika cichlid species assemblage: recent advances in molecular phylogenetics

Hydrobiologia ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 615 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Koblmüller ◽  
Kristina M. Sefc ◽  
Christian Sturmbauer
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Phylogenetics ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Species Assemblage ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
Recent Advances

scholarly journals A complex mode of aggressive mimicry in a scale-eating cichlid fish

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 20150521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Boileau ◽  
Fabio Cortesi ◽  
Bernd Egger ◽  
Moritz Muschick ◽  
Adrian Indermaur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fish Species ◽  
Related Species ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Targeted Sequencing ◽  
Complex Mode ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
Aggressive Mimicry ◽  
Complex Interactions

Aggressive mimicry is an adaptive tactic of parasitic or predatory species that closely resemble inoffensive models in order to increase fitness via predatory gains. Although similarity of distantly related species is often intuitively implicated with mimicry, the exact mechanisms and evolutionary causes remain elusive in many cases. Here, we report a complex aggressive mimicry strategy in Plecodus straeleni , a scale-eating cichlid fish from Lake Tanganyika, which imitates two other cichlid species. Employing targeted sequencing on ingested scales, we show that P. straeleni does not preferentially parasitize its models but—contrary to prevailing assumptions—targets a variety of co-occurring dissimilar looking fish species . Combined with tests for visual resemblance and visual modelling from a prey perspective, our results suggest that complex interactions among different cichlid species are involved in this mimicry system.

scholarly journals Ancestral Hybridization Facilitated Species Diversification in the Lake Malawi Cichlid Fish Adaptive Radiation

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 1100-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Svardal ◽  
Fu Xiang Quah ◽  
Milan Malinsky ◽  
Benjamin P Ngatunga ◽  
Eric A Miska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Lake Malawi ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Founder Population ◽  
East African ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
Show Evidence

Abstract The adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes in East African Lake Malawi encompasses over 500 species that are believed to have evolved within the last 800,000 years from a common founder population. It has been proposed that hybridization between ancestral lineages can provide the genetic raw material to fuel such exceptionally high diversification rates, and evidence for this has recently been presented for the Lake Victoria region cichlid superflock. Here, we report that Lake Malawi cichlid genomes also show evidence of hybridization between two lineages that split 3–4 Ma, today represented by Lake Victoria cichlids and the riverine Astatotilapia sp. “ruaha blue.” The two ancestries in Malawi cichlid genomes are present in large blocks of several kilobases, but there is little variation in this pattern between Malawi cichlid species, suggesting that the large-scale mosaic structure of the genomes was largely established prior to the radiation. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of polymorphic variants apparently derived from the hybridization are interspersed in the genomes. These loci show a striking excess of differentiation across ecological subgroups in the Lake Malawi cichlid assemblage, and parental alleles sort differentially into benthic and pelagic Malawi cichlid lineages, consistent with strong differential selection on these loci during species divergence. Furthermore, these loci are enriched for genes involved in immune response and vision, including opsin genes previously identified as important for speciation. Our results reinforce the role of ancestral hybridization in explosive diversification by demonstrating its significance in one of the largest recent vertebrate adaptive radiations.

scholarly journals Phylogeny of the Lake Tanganyika Cichlid Species Flock and Its Relationship to the Central and East African Haplochromine Cichlid Fish Faunas

2002 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Salzburger ◽  
Axel Meyer ◽  
Sanja Baric ◽  
Erik Verheyen ◽  
Christian Sturmbauer
Keyword(s):  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Species Flock ◽  
East African ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
Haplochromine Cichlid
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document