Phylogenetic Relationships of the Major Lineages of Cichlid Fishes

慈鱼科是研究许多生物现象的一个模式系统。系统学家、遗传学家、行为学家、比较形态学家和功能形态学家对这个家族的研究可能比任何其他硬骨动物群都要多。东非裂谷湖慈鲷的特殊适应辐射使它们成为形态学、物种形成和性选择研究的重要课题。这种鱼类也生活在非洲、中美洲和南美洲、马达加斯加和印度。本研究的总体目的是确定慈鲷主要谱系之间的系统关系。目前关于这个家族及其姐妹群关系的系统发育假设完全基于形态特征，但形态趋同的证据表明，有独立的系统发育证据将是重要的。DNA技术的最新进展使得用分子特征来解决这里提出的系统发育问题成为可能。线粒体基因将被测序和系统发育信息用于构建主要谱系之间的系统发育关系。

The fish family Cichlidae, is a model system for the study of many biological phenomena. Systematists, geneticists, ethologists, comparative and functional morphologists have studied this family probably more than any other teleostean group. The extraordinary adaptive radiation of cichlids in the East African Rift Lakes make them an important subject for the study of morphology, speciation, and sexual selection. Members of this family of fishes also live in Africa, Central and South America, Madagascar and India. The general aim of this study is to determine the systematic relationships among the major lineages of cichlid fishes. Current phylogenetic hypotheses about this family and its sistergroup relationships are exclusively based on morphological characters, but evidence of morphological convergence suggests that it will be important to have independent evidence of phylogeny. Recent advances in DNA technology have made it possible to address phylogenetic questions of the scope proposed here with molecular characters. Mitochondrial genes will be sequenced and the phylogenetic information used to construct phylogenetic relationships among the major lineages of cichlids.