What is the difference between Central and South American Cichlids if any? We know location is a given...

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neutrino said:
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I'm not sure where the term "therapsini" comes from? The term I am familiar with, "therapsids," refers to a group that predates the dinosaurs, with mammals being their only remaining 'relatives.'
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Theraps Günther 1862 slave or attendant, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to fry-guarding behavior (although Günther did not mention this); a more likely explanation is a superficial resemblance to Terapon theraps (Perciformes: Terapontidae)
 
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neutrino said:
except I don't know of any with body shapes quite like discus, angelfish, Heros, or Mesonauta in Central America
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True, or the pike cichlids, and none so small and cryptic as the Apistogrammas for instance. Certainly there is a much bigger diversity of morphology amongst South American cichlids.
 
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Milingu said:
Theraps Günther 1862 slave or attendant, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to fry-guarding behavior (although Günther did not mention this); a more likely explanation is a superficial resemblance to Terapon theraps (Perciformes: Terapontidae)
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Thanks. I hadn't heard the term before and Google didn't seem to know that, so it seems to be somewhat esoteric-- but I thought I'd pose it as a question in case I was missing something. :)
 
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neutrino said:
Agree that it's hard to generalize, as it seems to me, considering the diversity within both regions-- except I don't know of any with body shapes quite like discus, angelfish, Heros, or Mesonauta in Central America (though there are fish believed to be related to them).

I'm not sure where the term "therapsini" comes from? The term I am familiar with, "therapsids," refers to a group that predates the dinosaurs, with mammals being their only remaining 'relatives.'

What I do know is, while details of dating, colonization, rate of adaptation, genetic relationships, etc. have been debated, the scientific consensus seems to be that Central American cichlids originated from South America-- and (as I understand it) are generally considered to be of Heroine lineage, with, for example, those resembling Geophagines believed to have filled those morphological, environmental, and trophic niches due to no geophagines already filling those niches.

There's a huge volume of literature on all of this...

Phylogeny and biogeography of 91 species of heroine cichlids (Teleostei: Cichlidae) based on sequences of the cytochrome b gene - ScienceDirect
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That one is outdated. Try this one
 
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Hybridfish7 said:
That one is outdated. Try this one
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I've seen that one also, and several others... quite a few, really. I was primarily trying to support the point of the SA origin and general relationship to CA cichlids, as opposed to the granular details. Considering the nature of genetic studies, how they can contradict each other or reach varying conclusions or hypotheses, depending on varying factors, and how conclusions are in flux, etc., I picked the one I did mainly for the relative simplicity of text vs. trying to find the most recent one I could... but my own interest is primarily in the main outline and big picture of it, so I can understand where some of the details matter more to someone else. :)
 
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