In this work I used time lapse brightfield microscopy to investigate cells division’s kinetics during the first developmental stages of annual- and non-annual species belonging to the three different hylogenetic clades. Annual killifishes of all three clades had cleavage times significantly longer when compared to their non-annual sister taxa (average 35 min vs. average 75 min), showing, for the first time, that cell cycle rate during cleavage, a trait thought to be rather volutionary conserved can undergo convergent evolutionary change in response to variations in life-history.