Response to Comment on "Origin of the Superflock of Cichlid Fishes from Lake Victoria, East Africa"

Verheyen, Erik; Salzburger, Walter; Snoeks, Jos; Meyer, Axel

doi:10.1126/science.1096954

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This observation would provide empirical evidence for the theoretical possibility that — if refugia persisted during the Late Pleistocene arid period in the form of small, shallow lakes in the confines of the present Lake Victoria basin (see e.g. Fryer 2001) — such refugial populations could have retained a good portion of the genetic (and possibly morphological) variation of the entire species flock (Verheyen et al . 2003, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The loss of genetic variation during the Late Pleistocene arid period, during which an almost complete extinction of most Lake Victoria cichlid species occurred (Verheyen et al . 2003), might then have been rather minor permitting the rapid re‐colonization and diversification of the Lake Victoria haplochromine cichlid species flock from a small number of shallow refugial lake populations (Verheyen et al . 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fryer 2001) -such refugial populations could have retained a good portion of the genetic (and possibly morphological) variation of the entire species flock (Verheyen et al , 2004. The loss of genetic variation during the Late Pleistocene arid period, during which an almost complete extinction of most Lake Victoria cichlid species occurred , might then have been rather minor permitting the rapid re-colonization and diversification of the Lake Victoria haplochromine cichlid species flock from a small number of shallow refugial lake populations (Verheyen et al 2004).…”

Section: Conservation Genetic Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Population‐structure and genetic diversity in a haplochromine fish cichlid of a satellite lake of Lake Victoria

et al. 2004

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The ∼ ∼ ∼ ∼ 500 species of the cichlid fish species flock of Lake Victoria, East Africa, have evolved in a record-setting 100 000 years and represent one of the largest adaptive radiations. We examined the population structure of the endangered cichlid species Xystichromis phytophagus from Lake Kanyaboli, a satellite lake to Lake Victoria in the Kenyan Yala wetlands. Two sets of molecular markers were analysed -sequences of the mitochondrial control region as well as six microsatellite loci -and revealed surprisingly high levels of genetic variability in this species. Mitochondrial DNA sequences failed to detect population structuring among the three sample populations. A model-based population assignment test based on microsatellite data revealed that the three populations most probably aggregate into a larger panmictic population. However, values of population pairwise F ST indicated moderate levels of genetic differentiation for one population. Eleven distinct mitochondrial haplotypes were found among 205 specimens of X. phytophagus , a relatively high number compared to the total number of 54 haplotypes that were recovered from hundreds of specimens of the entire cichlid species flock of Lake Victoria. Most of the X. phytophagus mitochondrial DNA haplotypes were absent from the main Lake Victoria, corroborating the putative importance of satellite lakes as refugia for haplochromine cichlids that went extinct from the main lake in the last decades and possibly during the Late Pleistocene desiccation of Lake Victoria.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conservation Genetic Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Population‐structure and genetic diversity in a haplochromine fish cichlid of a satellite lake of Lake Victoria

et al. 2004

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Freshwater Molluscs of the Nile Basin, Past and Present

Damme

Bocxlaer

2009

The Nile

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The malacofauna of the Nile is poor compared to that of the Congo and its degree of endemicity is lower. While the highest species richness of the Congo Basin is in stenotopic taxa that live in the rivers and lakes, the highest diversity in the Nile Basin occurs in eurytopic taxa living in fringe habitats such as temporary pools. The paucity of endemics that need perennial waters as well in the Lower Nile as in the White Nile confirms the geological evidence indicating instability and discontinuity in water supply during Plio-Pleistocene times. The fauna of the Nile is predominantly Afrotropical in the Lower Nile and exclusively Afrotropical south of the junction of the White Nile and Blue Nile. Of all sub-basins, the degree of endemicity (either zero or two species) is lowest in the Equatorial Nile, indicating that the perennial aquatic environment in this sub-basin is young (probably Holocene) and lending support to the idea that the Bahr el Arab and White Nile Transcontinental Rift System were hydrologically unstable, with endorheic, alkaline lakes during most of the Plio-Pleistocene (Salama, 1997). In the Lower (Egyptian) Nile and in the Ethiopian Highlands palaearctic faunal components occur, consisting of widespread species and of a limited number of endemics of palaearctic origin, related to Levantine species. Most of these taxa first appear in the fossil record around 2.5 Ma. There is no evidence that the Nile functioned as an invasion route for Eurasiatic species prior to that time. Only Theodoxus niloticus is possibly of Paratethyan origin and may have invaded in the Late Miocene. The main invasion of freshwater molluscs into Africa appears to have occurred via the Horn of Africa in Middle and Late Miocene times. In the East African Rift, a diversified fauna occurs that only shares a fraction of species with the Nile Basin north of the Albert Nile (> ~5° N). In the equatorial headwaters, some species from southern Africa reach their northern limit, but the main community consists of species that are either endemic to one of the rift lakes or endemic to the region stretching from Turkana to the Kivu Basins. There hence exists a distinct East African bio-province, that was already recognisable in Pliocene assemblages and that had developed before the present lakes formed in the Late Pleistocene. Concerning the young age of Lake Victoria and the occurrence of an endemic cichlid superflock in the lake, the fossil molluscan record points to a persistence in the East African Rift of freshwater bodies sufficiently extensive to harbour a molluscan community — and ipso facto also fish — during periods of aridity/hyperaridity. The hypothesis of Verheyen et al. (2003, 2004), that the stem lineages of the East African haplochromines, presently inhabiting Lakes Victoria, Kyoga, Rukwa, Albert, George, Edward and surrounding waters, already existed during the Late Pliocene is consistent with the fossil evidence. The location of the area(s) of refuge (around Mount Elgon?) remains hypothetic, however. The fossil records...

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Phylogeny of Species of Sciadicleithrum (Monogenoidea: Ancyrocephalinae), and Their Historical Biogeography in the Neotropics

Mendoza‐Franco¹,

Vidal‐Martínez²

2005

Journal of Parasitology

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The phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of species of Sciadicleithrum parasitizing Neotropical cichlid fishes were studied. Hypotheses were: Did the presence of Sciadicleithrum species in southeast Mexico (SM) and Central America (CA) result from early dispersal of cichlid species from South America (SA) to the north via the Antilles during the Tertiary (24 million years ago [mya]), or did it occur after emergence of the Panama Isthmus in the Pleistocene (2-5 mya)? The Sciadicleithrum phylogeny was based on 19 morphological transformation series, with species of Gussevia and Cichlidogyrus as outgroups. The most parsimonious cladogram had a 40% consistency index, with one clade including all the species of Sciadicleithrum from SA and all but one of those from CA and another with all the Sciadicleithrum species from SM and S. maculicaudae from CA. Results support the late dispersal hypothesis following emergence of the Panama Isthmus. Fifteen species of Sciadicleithrum parasitize 13 cichlid species from SA and CA. In contrast, only 4 species of Sciadicleithrum infect 14 cichlid species from SM. Parasite speciation appears to lag behind host speciation, with 2 equally possible explanations: loss of parasite species and host switching.

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Response to Comment on "Origin of the Superflock of Cichlid Fishes from Lake Victoria, East Africa"

Cited by 4 publications

References 19 publications

Population‐structure and genetic diversity in a haplochromine fish cichlid of a satellite lake of Lake Victoria

Population‐structure and genetic diversity in a haplochromine fish cichlid of a satellite lake of Lake Victoria

Freshwater Molluscs of the Nile Basin, Past and Present

Phylogeny of Species of Sciadicleithrum (Monogenoidea: Ancyrocephalinae), and Their Historical Biogeography in the Neotropics

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