Lake Victoria cichlid fishes and other members of the Lake Victoria Regions Superflock and close relatives. Genome sequencing. Haplochromine cichlids

Lake Victoria region cichlids have diversified very rapidly. We find that the haplochromine cichlids in Lake Victoria and Kyoga form part of a single adaptive radiation derived from hybrid origin of multiple lineages that are themselves derived from an older hybrid origin between Congolese and Upper Nile lineages. Repeated cycles of fusion (hybridisation) and fission (diversification) characterise the evolutionary history of this exceptionally fast radiation.