Fig. 2: The genomic timeline of cichlid and teleost diversification.

The 14 cichlid species with new genome sequences are highlighted in bold. Fossils used for time calibration are marked on branches according to the fossil’s age and its uncertainty. For seven clades, the first occurrence is ambiguous. In these cases, the younger and older of the two potential first records are marked in purple and red, respectively. One example of such a clade, Tetraodontiformes, is shown in the first inset. Either †Cretatriacanthus guidottii (89.8–83.0 Ma) or †Plectocretacicus clarae (100.3–98.0 Ma) represent the first record of this clade. Our new model for time calibration with ambiguous first records calculates separate CladeAge prior densities for both fossils (shown in purple and red) and forms a combined prior density (shown in dark gray) based on these. The resulting genomic age estimate (posterior; shown in light gray) indicates that Tetraodontiformes are younger than †Plectocretacicus and thus supports †Cretatriacanthus as the first record of the group. The CladeAge prior density for the oldest cichlid record, †Mahengechromis, and the age estimates for the four cichlid subfamilies are shown in the second inset. A version of this phylogeny with all tip labels is provided in Supplementary Fig. 6.