Fig. 2

Phylogenies of Malawi cichlids based largely on mitochondrial DNA have suggested that hypertrophied lip lineages are paraphyletic. This cartoon phylogenetic reconstruction of Malawi cichlids integrates the relationships inferred from numerous studies of Malawi phylogenetics that have primarily focused on mitochondrial genes [22, 45,46,47,48,49]. The hypertrophied lip species Placidochromis milomo has been inferred to be nested within the rock-dwelling mbuna radiation with high bootstrap support while the similarly hypertrophied lip species Placidochromis ornatus and Cheilochromis euchilus have been inferred to be nested within the largely sand-dwelling non-mbuna component of the Malawi radiation