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Adaptive radiation is considered to play an important role in the diversification of life on Earth. This is especially true in isolated long-term environments where the largest adaptive radiations have been found and where the adaptive nature of diversification has been best studied. However, the environmental conditions that influence rapid diversification during adaptive radiations and potentially lead to differences in evolutionary trajectories and species richness across the tree of life are still unclear, primarily because there few, if any, fossil records for some of the most iconic examples of vertebrate radiations. Here, we use two diverse groups of diatoms (Diploneis and Afrocymbella) with different lifestyles and great fossilization potential to test the role of environment in adaptive radiation and its impact on evolutionary trajectories between different diatom clades in East African Rift lakes that are home to the world's …