Biodiversity and speciation in telmatherinid fishes of the Malili-Lake-System (Indonesia)

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The endemic ichthyofauna of the Malili-Lake-System (Sulawesi, Indonesia) is comprised of approx. 35 species, which belong to 4 families (Telmatherinidae, Gobiidae, Adrianichthyidae and Hemirhamphidae). The most speciose family, the sailfin-silversides (Telmatherinidae), is characterised by a set of closely related species, which are differentiated inter- and intraspecifically according to sexually and naturally selected characters, e.g. courtship coloration, trophic morphology and adult body size. The combination of these characteristics renders the Malili-Lake-System an extremely uselful but yet untapped model-system for the simultaneous analysis of allopatric and sympatric speciation processes in nature. Therefore, the proposed study is designed (1) to provide baseline-data on morphological and ecological differentiation, phylogenetic relationships and relative age of all endemic species in order to establish the system as an alternative to speciose cichlid radiations for the study of evolution of fish species flocks; (2) to test alternative hypotheses about phylogeographic patterns, rates and degree of genetic, morphological and ecological differentiation within and among the telmatherinid clades and - in an cooperative approach with other researchers - with those from endemic molluscs and crustaceans; (3) to test recent hypotheses about the contribution of natural selection, sexual selection and spatial heterogeneity to speciation processes in telmatherinid flocks.