%0 Journal Article
%T Mastacembelid eels support Lake Tanganyika as an evolutionary hotspot of diversification
%A Katherine J Brown
%A Lukas R¨¹ber
%A Roger Bills
%A Julia J Day
%J BMC Evolutionary Biology
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2148-10-188
%X Including 25 species across Africa, plus Asian representatives as outgroups, we present the first molecular phylogenetic analysis for the group, focusing particularly on the evolutionary history and biodiversity of LT mastacembelid eels. A combined matrix of nuclear and mitochondrial genes based on 3118 bp are analysed implementing different phylogenetic methods, including Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood.LT Mastacembelus are recovered as monophyletic, and analyses reveal the rapid diversification of five main LT lineages. Relaxed molecular clock dates provide age estimates for the LT flock at ~7-8 Myr, indicating intralacustrine diversification, with further speciation events coinciding with periods of lower lake level. Our analyses also reveal as yet undescribed diversity of lacustrine and riverine species. A Southern-Eastern African clade, that is younger than the LT flock, is also recovered, while West African taxa are basal members of the African mastacembelid clade.That the LT species flock of mastacembelid eels appears to have colonised and immediately diversified soon after the formation of the lake, supports the view of LT as an evolutionary hotspot of diversification. We find evidence for biogeographic clades mirroring a similar pattern to other ichthyological faunas. In addition, our analyses also highlight a split of African and Asian mastacembelid eels at ~19 Myr that is considerably younger than the split between their associated continents, suggesting a dispersal scenario for their current distribution.The African Great lakes provide natural experimental settings in which to better understand the processes that underlie speciation. Lake Tanganyika (LT), the oldest African rift lake (9-12 Myr) [1], is one of the world's richest freshwater ecosystems (c. 2000 species) [2]. It harbours numerous different endemic faunas (c. 600 species) [2], supporting more endemic non-cichlid species than any of the other African Great Lakes, many of which form
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/188