shrimps down under evolutionary relationships of subterranean crustaceans from western australia (decapoda atyidae stygiocaris)虾下地下的甲壳类动物的进化关系从澳大利亚西部(十足目阿地螺科stygiocaris).pdfVIP

Shrimps Down Under: Evolutionary Relationships of Subterranean Crustaceans from Western Australia (Decapoda: Atyidae: Stygiocaris) 1 2 1 Timothy J. Page *, William F. Humphreys , Jane M. Hughes 1 Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia, 2 Western Australian Museum, Welshpool DC, Western Australia, Australia Abstract Background: We investigated the large and small scale evolutionary relationships of the endemic Western Australian subterranean shrimp genus Stygiocaris (Atyidae) using nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Stygiocaris is part of the unique cave biota of the coastal, anchialine, limestones of the Cape Range and Barrow Island, most of whose nearest evolutionary relations are found in coastal caves of the distant North Atlantic. The dominance of atyids in tropical waters and their food resources suggest they are pivotal in understanding these groundwater ecosystems. Methodology/Principle Findings: Our nuclear and mitochondrial analyses all recovered the Mexican cave genus Typhlatya as the sister taxon of Stygiocaris, rather than any of the numerous surface and cave atyids from Australia or the Indo-Pacific region. The two described Stygiocaris species were recovered as monophyletic, and a third, cryptic, species was discovered at a single site, which has very different physiochemical properties from the sites hosting the two described species. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings suggest that Stygiocaris and Typhlatya may descend from a common ancestor that lived in the coastal marine habitat of the ancient Tethys Sea, and were subsequently separated by plate tectonic movements. This vicariant process is commonly