Reconciling fossils and molecules: Cenozoic divergence of cichlid fishes and the biogeography of Madagascar

Aim The biogeographical origins of the extant vertebrates endemic to Madagascar are largely unsolved, but have often been related to vicariance in the context of fragmentation of the supercontinent Gondwana in the Mesozoic. Such hypotheses are especially appealing in the case of cichlid fishes, which show phylogenetic relationships reflecting the temporal successions of the breakup of Gondwana. We used molecular clock data to test this assumption. Location Fragments of the 16S rRNA gene and of the nuclear Tmo-4C4 locus, partly obtained from Genbank from South American, African, Malagasy and Indian cichlids were analysed. Methods Based on monophyletic cichlid radiations in African lakes, we …