RESEARCH ARTICLE Morphology, Molecules, and Monogenean Parasites: An Example of an Integrative Approach to Cichlid Biodiversity Maarten Van Steenberge1,2,3*, Antoine Pariselle4¤a, Tine Huyse1,2, Filip A. M. Volckaert2, Jos Snoeks1,2, Maarten P. M. Vanhove1,2,5¤b 1 Biology Department, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium, 2 Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics, Department of Biology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, 3 Institute of Zoology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria, 4 Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution, IRD-CNRS-Université Montpellier, Montpellier, France, 5 Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Anavyssos, Greece ¤a Current address: IRD, ISE-M, Yaoundé, Cameroon ¤b Current address: Capacities for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, Operational Directorate Natural Environment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium *
[email protected] OPEN ACCESS Citation: Van Steenberge M, Pariselle A, Huyse T, Abstract Volckaert FAM, Snoeks J, Vanhove MPM (2015) Morphology, Molecules, and Monogenean Parasites: The unparalleled biodiversity of Lake Tanganyika (Africa) has fascinated biologists for over An Example of an Integrative Approach to Cichlid a century; its unique cichlid communities are a preferred model for evolutionary research. Biodiversity. PLoS ONE 10(4): e0124474. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0124474 Although species delineation is, in most cases, relatively straightforward, higher-order clas- sifications were shown not to agree with monophyletic groups. Here, traditional morphologi- Academic Editor: Robert Guralnick, University of Colorado, UNITED STATES cal methods meet their limitations. A typical example are the tropheine cichlids currently belonging to Simochromis and Pseudosimochromis. The affiliations of these widespread Received: August 19, 2014 and abundant cichlids are poorly understood.