[Brief abstract by M.K. Oliver:]
These beautiful fish evolve at a dizzying pace. Hundreds of species live
within just three African lakes, and many of them seem to have emerged
almost overnight. But now human use of these environments threatens to
exterminate these living laboratories for evolutionary studies. The
authors assert (p. 69) "...that cichlids of Lakes Malawi and Victoria
probably descended from a single lineage of mouth brooders (Haplochromini)
that escaped from Lake Tanganyika." They diagram (1) the entire Lake Malawi
flock(s) as being monophyletic, (2) the entire Lake Victoria flock as being monophyletic
and the sister group of the Lake Malawi flock(s), and (3) Astatoreochromis
alluaudi as the sister group of both flocks.