Skip to content

SpeciesScientists Discover Mysterious New Fish in the Red Sea – and Have Never Seen It Again OceanEye to eye with Britain's hidden sharks at SharkAdemy - Oceanographic RiversIn October, biologists surveying a New York harbor for invasive fish pulled up a bright yellow one. It wasn't an invasive species at all OceanShedd Aquarium Sends Shark Eggs to Bolster Wild Populations SpeciesA rare fish has been found in Lake Ontario, North America, whose entire body is golden. It is a nati..OceanThe Great Sea Reef Is Fiji’s Wildest Dive, and a New Frontier for Conservation OceanEckerd College professor contributes to designating Biscayne Bay an Important Shark and Ray Area SpeciesRio Verde Grande Survey Identifies Fifty-Three Fish Species Facing Flow Reductions FisheriesAdams River Salmon Run in Thompson-Nicola IndiaHilsa production dropped 26% in five years, fisheries minister tells parliament SpeciesScientists Discover Mysterious New Fish in the Red Sea – and Have Never Seen It Again OceanEye to eye with Britain's hidden sharks at SharkAdemy - Oceanographic RiversIn October, biologists surveying a New York harbor for invasive fish pulled up a bright yellow one. It wasn't an invasive species at all OceanShedd Aquarium Sends Shark Eggs to Bolster Wild Populations SpeciesA rare fish has been found in Lake Ontario, North America, whose entire body is golden. It is a nati..OceanThe Great Sea Reef Is Fiji’s Wildest Dive, and a New Frontier for Conservation OceanEckerd College professor contributes to designating Biscayne Bay an Important Shark and Ray Area SpeciesRio Verde Grande Survey Identifies Fifty-Three Fish Species Facing Flow Reductions FisheriesAdams River Salmon Run in Thompson-Nicola IndiaHilsa production dropped 26% in five years, fisheries minister tells parliament

EveryFish

Species flock

Many closely related species that evolved from a few ancestors in one place, like the cichlids of the African Great Lakes.

Also: adaptive radiation

A species flock forms when one or a few founding species split into many, each fitting a different way of life. The cichlids of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika are the famous example: each lake holds hundreds of species found nowhere else, with jaws and teeth shaped for scraping algae, crushing snails, eating scales or catching fish. Lake Victoria's several hundred species evolved in roughly the 15,000 years since the lake last refilled, a very short time in evolution. Lake Baikal's sculpins and the Lake Lanao carps are other flocks.

See also

Endemic species Pharyngeal teeth Invasive species

Find fish that mention Species flock

The weekly digest

Every Monday: the fish of the day, new pages on EveryFish, and the conferences and anniversaries of the week ahead.