Editing Cichlid (section)

====Evolution====
Cichlids are renowned for their recent, rapid evolutionary radiation, both across the entire clade and within different communities across separate habitats.<ref name=Duponchelle-2008/><ref name=Muschik-2012/><ref name=York-2015/><ref name=Zardoya-1996/><ref name=Goodwin-1998>{{cite journal |last1=Goodwin |first1=Nicholas B. |last2=Balshine-Earn |first2=Sigal |last3=Reynolds |first3=John D. |title=Evolutionary transitions in parental care in cichlid fish |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |date=7 December 1998 |volume=265 |issue=1412 |pages=2265–2272 |doi=10.1098/rspb.1998.0569 |pmc=1689529 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hulsey |first1=C Darrin |last2=Hollingsworth |first2=Phillip R |last3=Fordyce |first3=James A |title=Temporal diversification of Central American cichlids |journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology |date=December 2010 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=279 |doi=10.1186/1471-2148-10-279 |pmid=20840768 |pmc=2944184 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2010BMCEE..10..279H }}</ref> Within their phylogeny, many parallel instances are seen of lineages evolving to the same trait and multiple cases of reversion to an ancestral trait.

The family Cichlidae arose between 80 and 100 million years ago within the order Perciformes (perch-like fishes).<ref name=Zardoya-1996>{{cite journal |last1=Zardoya |first1=Rafael |last2=Vollmer |first2=Dana M. |last3=Craddock |first3=Clark |last4=Streelman |first4=Jeffrey T. |last5=Karl |first5=Steve |last6=Meyer |first6=Axel |date=22 November 1996 |title=Evolutionary conservation of microsatellite flanking regions and their use in resolving the phylogeny of cichlid fishes (Pisces: Perciformes) |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |series=Series B: Biological Sciences |volume=263 |issue=1376 |pages=1589–1598 |doi=10.1098/rspb.1996.0233 |pmid=8952095 |bibcode=1996RSPSB.263.1589Z |s2cid=45834758 |url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-opus-36277 }}</ref> Cichlidae can be split into a few groups based on their geographic location: Madagascar, Indian, African, and Neotropical (or South American). The most famous and diverse group, the African cichlids, can be further split either into Eastern and Western varieties, or into groups depending on which lake the species is from: [[Lake Malawi]], [[Lake Victoria]], or [[Lake Tanganyika]].<ref name=Zardoya-1996/><ref name=Goodwin-1998/> Of these subgroups, the Madagascar and Indian cichlids are the most basal and least diverse.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

Of the African cichlids, the West African or Lake Tanganyika cichlids are the most basal.<ref name=Muschik-2012/><ref name=Zardoya-1996/>
Cichlids' common ancestor is believed to have been a spit-spawning species.<ref name=Goodwin-1998/> Both Madagascar and Indian cichlids retain this feature. However, of the African cichlids, all extant substrate brooding species originate solely from Lake Tanganyika.<ref name=Duponchelle-2008/><ref name=Goodwin-1998/> The ancestor of the Lake Malawi and Lake Victoria cichlids were mouthbrooders. Similarly, only around 30% of South American cichlids are thought to retain the ancestral substrate-brooding trait. Mouthbrooding is thought to have evolved individually up to 14 times, and a return to substrate brooding as many as three separate times between both African and Neotropical species.<ref name=Goodwin-1998/>