Thomas M. Iliffe, C.W. Hart, Jr. and Raymond B. Manning. 1983.
Biogeography and the caves of Bermuda. Nature, 302:141-142.
Recent investigations of the more than 100 inland marine
caves of Bermuda have shown that the number of invertebrate species inhabiting
them is large, the amount of endemism is greater than one might expect, and the
biogeographical relationships among species of certain genera encountered
suggest more than one route of colonization. We believe that some of
Bermuda's cavernicolous invertebrate marine fauna originated from stocks
transported from the Caribbean via the Gulf Stream; some may represent groups
that survived on submerged and emergent sea mounts along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
since the middle Mesozoic; some are relict deep sea fauna, while others may be
Tethyan relicts. In addition, we hypothesize that the geothermal
temperature gradient, observed as shallow as 30 m below present sea level, may
have maintained water temperatures in some caves sufficiently high to protect
certain groups during Pleistocene glaciation.
Thomas M. Iliffe, Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at
Galveston, P.O. Box 1675, Galveston, Texas 77553, USA.
E-mail:
iliffet@tamug.edu
Keywords: Bermuda; biogeography; invertebrate; marine cave.
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