Lake Malawi is the southernmost Great Lake of the African Rift. Today, it is over 560 kilometres long, up to 80 kilometres wide and, thus, one of the largest lakes in the world. The lake's basin started forming 8.6 million years ago and the water body itself has reached deep water conditions in the early Pliocene. Lake Malawi is most famous for its cichlid fish fauna. It is also known to harbour endemic molluscs, ostracods and sponges.
Age (my) |
3.6–5.5 |
Biogeographical region |
South-East Africa |
Surface area (km2) |
29,250 |
Altitude (m asl) |
474 |
Maximum depth (m) |
706 |
Mean depth (m) |
292 |
Catchment area (km2) |
116,200 |
Number of species |
|
Number of endemic species |
|
Key endemic taxa |
Cichlids, Mollusca, Ostracoda |
Suggested readings:
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Cohen, A. S., J. R. Stone, K. R. M. Beuning, L. E. Park, P. N. Reinthal, D. Dettman, C. Scholz, T. C. Johnson, J. W. King, M. R. Talbot, Brown, E.T., & Ivory, S.J., 2007: Ecological consequences of early Lake Pleistocene megadroughts in tropical Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104:16422–16427
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Martens, K. 2003: On the evolution of Gomphocythere (Crustacea, Ostracoda) in Lake Nyassa/ Malawi (East Africa), with the description of 5 new species. Hydrobiologia, 497: 121-144
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Owen R. B. , R. Crossley, T. C. Johnson, D. Tweddle, I. Kornfield, S. Davison, D. H. Eccles & D. E. Engstrom, 1990: Major Low Levels of Lake Malawi and their Implications for Speciation Rates in Cichlid Fishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 240: 519-553
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Schultheiß, R., Van Bocxlaer, B.; Wilke, T. & Albrecht, C., 2009: Old fossils–young species: evolutionary history of an endemic gastropod assemblage in Lake Malawi. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 276: 2837-2846
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Bibliography of Lake Malawi Biology
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(click to enlarge)
male Bellamya capillata (photograph: R. Schultheiß)
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Lake Malawi at Cape Maclear (photograph: T. Geertz)
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Local fishermen in Malawi (photograph: T. Geertz)
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