Tanzania The Promised Land Tanzania The Promised Land | Page 13

LAKE NYASA
Tanzania The Promised Land
Lake Nyasa, also known as Lake Malawi in Malawi and Lago
Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the
southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located
between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the ninth
largest lake in the world and the third largest and second deepest
lake in Africa. It is home to more species of fish than any other
lake, including at least 700 species of cichlids. Lake Nyasa is
a meromictic lake, meaning that its water layers do not mix.
Lake Nyasa is noted for being the site of evolutionary
radiations among several groups of animals, most
notably cichlid fish. There are at least 700 cichlid species in
Lake Nyasa, with some estimating that the actual figure is
as high as 1,000 species. The actual number is labelled
with some uncertainty because of the many unidentified
species and the extreme variation among similar
species, making the task of identifying so many
individual species very complex. Except for four species
(Astatotilapia calliptera, Coptodon rendalli, Oreochromis
shiranus and Serranochromis robustus), all cichlids in
the lake are endemic to the area.
Hosts the Highest Number of
Species of Fish in the World
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