Zambezi biodiversity mystery solved

May 19th, 2005

The great diversity of cichlid species in the rivers of southern Africa can be explained by the fact that evolutionary processes operated during a window of ecological opportunity in a now-extinct lake. These findings of a study by the Fish Ecology and Evolution Department at Eawag indicate how local evolutionary developments occurring within a limited period can have a major and lasting effect on continental biodiversity.

Press release [pdf, 152 KB; in German only]

Publication in Nature 435 / May 2005 [pdf, 391 KB]

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Serranochromis altus, a piscivorous cichlid whose specialization developed in Lake Makgadikgadi. (Photo: Roger Bills/SAIAB)