| Paratilapia | |
|---|---|
| Paratilapia polleni | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Cichlidae |
| Subfamily: | Paratilapiinae Tawil, 2001 |
| Genus: | Paratilapia Bleeker, 1868 |
| Species | |
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Paratilapia is a genus of cichlids with only two known species. They are found only in Madagascar.
Phylogenetic analsysis of DNA sequence and morphological data have hitherto been unable to resolve the relationships of the genus to satisfaction. For example sequence data from mtDNA 16S rRNA and COI disagrees regarding its placement (Sparks 2004), and the standard hypothesis among cichlids - that this is due to hybridization effects - can obviously not apply here as both genes are mitochondrial and affected by hybrid introgression in the same way.
In any case, Paratilapia tends to occupy a position between African subfamilies such as the Ptychochrominae and the Indo-Malagasy clade comprising Etroplinae and Ptychochrominae in most analyses, and this may well be correct. If so, its ancestors must have separated from those of all other living cichlids in the Mesozoic. They most probably were already a distinct lineage by the Turonian (c.90 mya), as the Indo-Malagasy clade must have originated before the split of Madagascar from the Indian Platewhich commenced then and was finished by the end of the Cretaceous.(Sparks 2004)
Consequently, they would have to be classified as a subfamily of their own, Paratilapiinae.