IMIS | Lifewatch regional portal

You are here

IMIS

[ report an error in this record ]basket (0): add | show Print this page

A new species of Typhlatya (Crustacea: Decapoda: Atyidae) from anchialine caves on the French Mediterranean coast
Jaume, D.; Bréhier, F. (2005). A new species of Typhlatya (Crustacea: Decapoda: Atyidae) from anchialine caves on the French Mediterranean coast. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 144(3): 387-414. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00175.x
In: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Academic Press: London. ISSN 0024-4082; e-ISSN 1096-3642, more
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 

Keywords
    Geography > Biogeography
    System analysis
    Tethys
    Typhlatya Creaser, 1936 [WoRMS]
    MED, France [Marine Regions]
    Marine/Coastal

Authors  Top 
  • Jaume, D., more
  • Bréhier, F.

Abstract
    A new species of the thermophylic Tethyan relict prawn Typhlatya is described from two anchialine caves near Perpignan (southern France). The new species is closely related to a congener known only from a freshwater cave at Castellón (eastern Spain), about 400 km to the south-west, differing apparently only in the size and shape of the rostrum and the armature of the dactylus of the fifth pereiopod. Based on palaeogeographical evidence and assuming a sister-group relationship between both species, we suggest that their common ancestor could not be older than early Pliocene in age, and that it was already a stygobiont taxon adapted to live in shallow-water marine crevicular habitats. This ancestor would have vanished from the western Mediterranean after the cooling associated with the onset of northern Hemisphere glaciation, about 3 Mya, as documented for other Mediterranean marine taxa. Indeed, the genus is completely stygobiont and does not occur in fluvial environments. The Pyrenees represent a watershed boundary that eliminates the possibility of the derivation of one species from the other by active dispersal after establishment in continental waters.

All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Authors