Paratilapia

Taxobox
name = "Paratilapia"

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = "Paratilapia polleni"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Actinopterygii
ordo = Perciformes
familia = Cichlidae
subfamilia = Paratilapiinae
subfamilia_authority = Tawil, 2001
genus = "Paratilapia"
genus_authority = Bleeker, 1868
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
*"Paratilapia polleni"
*"Paratilapia toddi"

"Paratilapia" is a small genus of cichlids with only two known species. They occur on Madagascar.

Phylogenetic analsysis of DNA sequence and morphological data have hitherto been unable to resolve the relationships of the genus to satisfaction. For example sequence data from mtDNA 16S rRNA and COI disagrees regarding its placement (Sparks 2004), and the standard hypothesis among cichlids - that this is due to hybridization effects - can obviously not apply here as both genes are mitochondrial and affected by hybrid introgression in the same way.

In any case, "Paratilapia" tends to occupy a position between African subfamilies such as the Ptychochrominae and the Indo-Malagasy clade comprised of Etroplinae and Ptychochrominae in most analyses, and this may well be correct. If so, its ancestors must have separated from those of all other living cichlids in the Mesozoic. They most probably were already a distinct lineage by the Turonian (c.90 mya), as the Indo-Malagasy clade must have originated before the split of Madagascar from the Indian Platewhich commenced then and was finished by the end of the Cretaceous.(Sparks 2004)

Consequently, they would have to be classified as a subfamily of their own, Paratilapiinae.

References

*
*
* (2004): Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the Malagasy and South Asian cichlids (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae). "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution" 30(3): 599–614. doi|10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00225-2 (HTML abstract)