Fig. 2

Time-calibrated phylogeny (BEAST, relaxed normal molecular clock) of 180 cichlid taxa based on ten protein coding mitochondrial genes and on the calibration Set 4 (see Table 1). Time constrained nodes (black circles) were calibrated using fossils, i.e. A: †Tremembichthys, B: †Gymnogeophagus eocenicus, C: †Plesioheros chaulidus, D: †Oreochromis lorenzoi, E: †Tugenchromis pickfordi), one geological event (F: age of Lake Barombi Mbo maare) or as in the case of the root using secondary constraint (divergence time estimate for the age of the MRCA of cichlids taken from Matschiner et al. [9]; 82.17–98.91 Ma). Node bars indicate 95% HPD intervals of divergence events and are coloured according to their Bayesian Posterior Probability (blue: BPP 1.0; violet: BPP 0.99–0.95; green: BPP 0.94–0.8; orange: BPP 0.79–0.5, node bars with BPP < 0.5 are not depicted). Numbers next to the nodes correspond to the numbers in the Additional file 4: Table S2