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Under the volcano: phylogeography and evolution of the cave-dwelling Palmorchestia hypogaea (Amphipoda, Crustacea) at La Palma (Canary Islands)

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dc.creator Villacorta, Carlos
dc.creator Jaume, Damià
dc.creator Oromí, Pedro
dc.creator Juan, Carlos
dc.date 2008-02-28T23:41:18Z
dc.date 2008-02-28T23:41:18Z
dc.date 2008-01-31
dc.date.accessioned 2017-01-31T01:00:30Z
dc.date.available 2017-01-31T01:00:30Z
dc.identifier BMC Biol. 2008; 6: 7.
dc.identifier http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/6/7
dc.identifier 1741-7007
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/10261/3113
dc.identifier 10.1186/1741-7007-6-7
dc.identifier.uri http://dspace.mediu.edu.my:8181/xmlui/handle/10261/3113
dc.description [Background] The amphipod crustacean Palmorchestia hypogaea occurs only in La Palma (Canary Islands) and is one of the few terrestrial amphipods in the world that have adapted to a strictly troglobitic life in volcanic cave habitats. A surface-dwelling closely related species (Palmorchestia epigaea) lives in the humid laurel forest on the same island. Previous studies have suggested that an ancestral littoral Orchestia species colonized the humid forests of La Palma and that subsequent drought episodes in the Canaries reduced the distribution of P. epigaea favouring the colonization of lava tubes through an adaptive shift. This was followed by dispersal via the hypogean crevicular system.
dc.description [Results] P. hypogaea and P. epigaea did not form reciprocally monophyletic mitochondrial DNA clades. They showed geographically highly structured and genetically divergent populations with current gene flow limited to geographically close surface locations. Coalescence times using Bayesian estimations assuming a non-correlated relaxed clock with a normal prior distribution of the age of La Palma, together with the lack of association of habitat type with ancestral and recent haplotypes, suggest that their adaptation to cave life is relatively ancient.
dc.description [Conclusion] The data gathered here provide evidence for multiple invasions of the volcanic cave systems that have acted as refuges. A re-evaluation of the taxonomic status of the extant species of Palmorchestia is needed, as the division of the two species by habitat and ecology is unnatural. The information obtained here, and that from previous studies on hypogean fauna, shows the importance of factors such as the uncoupling of morphological and genetic evolution, the role of climatic change and regressive evolution as key processes in leading to subterranean biodiversity.
dc.description This work has been financed by the research funds REN2003–00024 and CGL2006–01365 of the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia of Spain and European Union FEDER funds. CV is supported by a FPI grant from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia.
dc.description Peer reviewed
dc.format 586028 bytes
dc.format application/pdf
dc.language eng
dc.publisher BioMed Central
dc.relation Publisher’s version
dc.relation http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-6-7
dc.rights openAccess
dc.title Under the volcano: phylogeography and evolution of the cave-dwelling Palmorchestia hypogaea (Amphipoda, Crustacea) at La Palma (Canary Islands)
dc.type Artículo


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