The cichlid Pundamilia sp. ’nyererei-like’ lives around the edges of Python Island in Lake Victoria.
When two individuals from different species mate, the offspring is known as a hybrid. As a result of the genomes being mixed, sometimes phenotypes are produced that deal with new environmental conditions better than the two parent species. Very often, hybrids are not able to reproduce, but there are quite a number of exceptions to this, including the cichlids. New species can emerge from such fertile hybrid populations. In other cases, however, hybrids are less well-suited to their environment and so contribute little to the gene pool of future generations. Which of these situations arises depends, among other things, on how many unoccupied ecological niches exist in the hybrids' habitat. In several earlier studies, Ole Seehausen and his team at Eawag and the University of Bern have highlighted the probable importance of hybridisation for the development of biodiversity in African lakes.
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