Speciation and repeated origins of hypertrophied lips in parallel adaptive radiations of cyprinid fish from East Africa

Abstract The evolution of convergent phenotypes is one of the most interesting phenomena of repeated adaptive radiations. Here, we examined the repeated patterns of thick‐lipped or “rubberlip” phenotype of cyprinid fish of the genus Labeobarbus discovered in riverine environments of the Ethiopian Highlands, East Africa. To test the adaptive value of thickened lips, identify the ecological niche of the thick‐lipped ecomorphs, and test whether these ecomorphs are the products of adaptive divergence, we studied six sympatric pairs of ecomorphs with hypertrophied lips and the normal lip structure from different riverine basins. Trophic morphology, diet, stable isotope (δ15N and δ13C) signatures, as well as mtDNA markers and genome‐wide SNP variation, were analyzed. Our results show that thick‐lipped ecomorphs partition trophic resources with generalized ecomorphs in only one‐half of the examined sympatric pairs despite the pronounced divergence in lip structure. In these thick‐lipped ecomorphs that were trophically diverged, the data on their diet along with the elevated 15N values suggest an invertivorous specialization different from the basal omnivorous–detritivouros feeding mode of the generalized ecomorphs. Genetic data confirmed an independent and parallel origin of all six lipped ecomorphs. Yet, only one of those six thick‐lipped ecomorphs had a notable genetic divergence with sympatric non‐lipped ecomorphs based on nuclear SNPs data (FST = 0.21). Sympatric pairs can be sorted by combinations of phenotypic, ecological, and genetic divergence from an ecologically non‐functional mouth polymorphism via ecologically functional polymorphism to a matured speciation stage via divergent evolution.