Cichlid~X

A mini-documentary of the research project of Prof. Dr. Walter Salzburger and his team at University of Basel on the adaptive radiations of cichlid fishes in the East African Great Lakes. Adaptive radiation is the evolution of a set of species from a common ancestor in a short period of time - relatively speaking - due to the adaptation of groups of individuals to different ecological conditions. While Darwin's finches on the Galapagos islands are the most famous adaptive radiation, the radiations in the East African Great Lakes are far more species-rich. 250 species have evolved alone in Lake Tanganyika over the past 10 million years, and over 3000 species of cichlids exist today on Earth. The African Great Lakes are a cichlid species factory! In the Salzburger group, researchers investigate the causes of the rapid diversification of cichlids using a systems biology approach (hence the X in the project name): cutting-edge ecological genomics, stable isotope analyses, 3D-morphometrics as well as experimental methods are applied to understand cichlid fish evolution.