View source for Biology:Neolamprologus meeli

{{Speciesbox
| name = ''Neolamprologus meeli''
| image = 
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| taxon = Neolamprologus meeli
| authority = (Poll, 1949){{Verify source|date=February 2008}}<!-- "1948"? -->
| synonyms = 
''Lepidiolamprologus meeli'' <small>(but see text)</small>
}}

'''''Neolamprologus meeli''''' is a [[Biology:Cichlid|cichlid]] [[Biology:Species|species]] in the subfamily [[Biology:Pseudocrenilabrinae|Pseudocrenilabrinae]]. It is [[Biology:Endemism|endemic]] to Lake Tanganyika, where it is found in the waters of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia.

It is sometimes placed in ''[[Biology:Lepidiolamprologus|Lepidiolamprologus]]'', and this may well be appropriate. As it seems, it belongs to a group also including ''[[Biology:Neolamprologus boulengeri|N. boulengeri]]'' and ''[[Biology:Neolamprologus hecqui|N. hecqui]]'' (both also probable members of ''Lepidiolamprologus''), ''[[Biology:Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus|L. attenuatus]]'' and ''[[Biology:Lepidiolamprologus kendalli|L. kendalli]]''.<ref name = dayetal2007>Day ''et al.'' (2007)</ref>

As [[Biology:Hybrid|hybrid]]ization seems to have played a major role in the radiation of this group, the exact relationships of the present species are obscure; one specimens was found to belong to an mtDNA lineage quite similar to ''L./N. hecqui'', while another was distantly similar to ''L. kendalli'' in this regard. Perhaps the former observation is based on a misidentified specimen; in any case it appears that a somewhat closer relationship between the present species and ''L. kendalli'' than of either to any other [[Biology:Lamprologini|lamprologine]] is more likely than not. Yet as this observation is only based on analysis of mtDNA sequence data, it may just as well be that the first ''L./N. meeli'' were the hybrid offspring of a ''Lepidiolamprologus'' female ancestral to ''L. kendalli'' and a ''Neolamprologus'' male, with subsequent hybridization of ''L./N. meeli'' and ''L./N. hecqui''.<ref name = dayetal2007 />

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{aut|Day, Julia J.; Santini, Simona & Garcia-Moreno, Jaime}} (2007): Phylogenetic relationships of the Lake Tanganyika cichlid tribe Lamprologini: The story from mitochondrial DNA. ''[[Biology:Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.]]'' '''45'''(2): 629–642. <small>{{doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2007.02.025}}</small> (HTML abstract)

{{Taxonbar|from=Q1705194}}

[[Category:Neolamprologus]]



{{Sourceattribution|Neolamprologus meeli|1}}