Horst Wilkens, Jakob Parzefall and Thomas M. Iliffe. 1986. Origin and age
of the marine stygofauna of Lanzarote, Canary Islands. Mitteilungen aus dem Hamburgischen
Zoologischen Museum und Institut, 83:223-230.
Five species of troglobitic crustaceans, previously
known only from the Jameos del Agua marine lava tube in Lanzarote, Canary
Islands, have been collected from wells in other, geologically older areas
of the island. Most, and possibly all, of the endemic species
inhabiting the Jameos del Agua probably entered the cave from adjacent
crevicular groundwater habitats. The endemic hypogean fauna of
Lanzarote can be divided into 2 groups: (1) relict species with affinities
to the cave fauna of other oceanic, primarily Western Atlantic, islands and
(2) species with close relatives from the deep sea. The origin of the
first group can be correlated to Mesozoic plate tectonics. The species
of the second group are probably derived from widely spread deep sea
ancestors and may have colonized the crevicular system of Lanzarote at
different times.
Horst Wilkens and
Jacob Parzefall, Zoologishes Institut und Zoologisches Museum der
Universitat Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, D-2000 Hamburg 13, Germany.
- 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: crustaceans; stygofauna; lava tube; Canary Islands; hypogean; Lanzarote; marine; Jameos del Agua; anchialine.
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