A Tale of Two Shrimps-Speciation and Demography of Two Sympatric Shrimp Species From Hydrothermal Vents.

ABSTRACT: Hydrothermal vents can serve as natural laboratories to study speciation processes due to their fragmented distribution, often with geographic barriers between habitats. Two sympatric species of Rimicaris shrimps occur at vents on the Izu-Bonin-Mariana volcanic arc: Rimicaris loihi also occurs near Hawai'i and R. cambonae is present on the Tonga Arc. These two species biogeographically co-occur and are genetically similar, raising questions about their speciation mechanisms, how they maintain distinct species, and whether interbreeding occurs. Here, we used barcoding and shotgun sequencing to test their genetic isolation and investigate their speciation process. We also evaluated population demography over 10 years to assess population densities and sex ratios at vents. Our results support

SUBMITTER: Methou P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12617057 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature