Sympatric speciation in Nicaraguan crater lake cichlid fish

摘要: One of the hottest controversies in evolutionary biology is sympatric speciation, formation new species absence geographical boundaries. The controversy about whether it happens or not: ‘should’ theory but difficult to prove it. Two examples phenomenon are reported this week, one fish and (online) plants, convincing evidence that as Darwin suggested, speciation likely be common. fishy example Amphilophus zaliosus from A. citrinellus a volcanic crater lake Nicaragua. And curly palm Howea belmoreana thatch H. forsteriana diverged on Lord Howe Island, island 480 km east Australia Tasman Sea. Sympatric barriers, remains most contentious concepts biology. Although under conditions seems theoretically possible1,2,3,4,5, empirical studies scarce only few credible exist6. Here we present case Midas cichlid complex (Amphilophus sp.) young small Our study includes phylogeographic, population-genetic (based mitochondrial DNA, microsatellites amplified fragment length polymorphisms), morphometric ecological analyses. We find, first, Lake Apoyo was seeded once by ancestral high-bodied benthic citrinellus, common area; second, elongated limnetic zaliosus) evolved (A. citrinellus) within less than ∼10,000 yr; third, two reproductively isolated; fourth, eco-morphologically distinct.