Editing Adaptive radiation (section)

==== Malawi cichlids ====
The cichlids of Lake Malawi constitute a "species flock" of up to 1000 endemic species.<ref name="Konings2" /> Only seven cichlid species in Lake Malawi are not a part of the species flock: the Eastern happy (''[[Astatotilapia calliptera]]''), the sungwa (''[[Serranochromis robustus]]''), and five tilapia species (genera ''[[Oreochromis]]'' and ''[[Coptodon]]'').<ref name="Konings2" /> All of the other cichlid species in the lake are descendants of a single original colonist species, which itself was descended from Tanganyikan ancestors.<ref name="Salzburger" /> The common ancestor of Malawi's species flock is believed to have reached the lake 3.4 million years ago at the earliest, making Malawi cichlids' diversification into their present numbers particularly rapid.<ref name="Konings2" /> Malawi's cichlids span a similarly range of feeding behaviors to those of Tanganyika, but also show signs of a much more recent origin. For example, all members of the Malawi species flock are [[mouthbrooder|mouth-brooders]], meaning the female keeps her eggs in her mouth until they hatch; in almost all species, the eggs are also fertilized in the female's mouth, and in a few species, the females continue to guard their fry in their mouth after they hatch.<ref name="Konings2" /> Males of most species display predominantly blue coloration when mating. However, a number of particularly divergent species are known from Malawi, including the piscivorous ''[[Nimbochromis livingstonii|Nimbochromis livingtonii]]'', which lies on its side in the substrate until small cichlids, perhaps drawn to its broken white patterning, come to inspect the predator - at which point they are swiftly eaten.<ref name="Konings2" />