Museum researchers working in the lower Congo River have long been impressed by the remarkable biodiversity of the region—and curious as to what drives it.
Museum researchers working in the lower Congo River have long been impressed by the remarkable biodiversity of the region—and curious as to what drives it.
“In this very short section of the Congo, we find a tremendous diversity of fishes,” said Melanie Stiassny, Axelrod Research Curator in the Museum’s Department of Ichthyology and an author on the study. “So what is it about this system that makes it such a pump for species?”
A new genomic study conducted by Stiassny and her colleagues and published this month in the journal Molecular Ecology suggests that the area’s rapids—some of the fastest and most turbulent in the world—are driving fishes in the area to develop into new species more swiftly than expected.
Scientists have long understood that geographic separation is a driver for evolution. Isolating one population of a species—on an island, for instance—can cause it to take a development path distinct from other members. Over the course of many generations, this can lead to the rise of new species.
Read more at American Museum of Natural History
Photo credit: Oliver Lucanus
