Journal Article
The dark side of relict species biology: Cave animals as ancient lineages
Assmann, T., Casale, A., Drees, C., Habel, J.C., Matern, A. and Schuldt, A.
Record Number:
5334
Year:
2010
Editor:
Habel, J.C. and Assmann, T.
Publisher:
Springer-Verlag
Place Published:
Berlin and Heidelberg
Book Title:
Relict species: Phylogeography and conservation biology
Abstract:
Abstract Due to their fascinating biology and phenomena belonging to the realm
of scientific curiosity, cave animals have been objects of study for zoologists for
numerous decades. This chapter not only focuses on the extremes (e.g., absence
of eyes, specialization to extreme environments), but also serves as an introduction
to understand the geographic distribution patterns and history of these highly
diverse ecological groups with their relict characteristics. After an introduction to
the subterranean environment in Sect. 1, we briefly review the biology and ecology
of cave animals with their regressive and progressive evolutionary tendencies in
order to understand the innate reasons for restricted distribution patterns (Sect. 2).
In Sect. 3, we summarize the main aspects of our knowledge regarding the distribution
of these species, especially in the Holarctic; and finally in Sect. 4, we highlight
the relict characteristics of cave animal distribution and the ancient phylogenetic
splits between cave and surface lineages.
Times Cited:
0