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assignments nowadays are based upon these re- lationships in order to make these genera so- called natural groups. Having said that, the question remains to which genus the other related species should be as- signed. It is obvious that their assignment should follow their (phylogenetic) interrelationship. Spe- cies that are more closely related to Paratheraps breidohri than to Vieja maculicauda should be placed in Paratheraps, species more closely relat- ed to Vieja maculicauda than to Paratheraps brei- dohri belong to Vieja. Earlier scientists published papers on the subject also, but they used either a small character set (i.e. only DNA or only morphology) and/or a lim- ited number of species. Říčan et al (2008) were the first to use both types of characters and al- most all Central American cichlid species. That is why their paper is so important. One result of their study is that Paratheraps and Vieja are two separate natural groups, albeit closely related to each other. The technical term for this is that they are sister taxa. Sister taxa are more closely related to each other than any of the two is to another taxon. Being two separate groups (i.e. genera) confirms the validity of the names Paratheraps breidohri and Vieja macu- licauda. Paratheraps breidohri is the type specimen proposed for the complex Paratheraps Photo: Aquamojo 23

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