Phylogeographic patterns of intertidal arthropods (Acari, Oribatida) from southern Japanese islands reflect paleoclimatic events.

ABSTRACT: The Japanese islands represent one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. Their geological history and present geography resulted in a high number of endemic species in nearly all major metazoan clades. We investigated the phylogeography of three different intertidal mite species from the Ryukyu islands and southern mainland by means of morphometry and molecular genetics. None of the species represents an endemic, nearly all show distributions ranging over at least the southern and central Ryukyus. Two species, Fortuynia shibai and F. churaumi sp. n. clearly represent sister species that are derived from a common Eastern ancestor. Molecular genetic results indicate that these species separated approx. 3 Ma before the opening of the Okinawa trough, whereas F. shibai most likely showed an anc

SUBMITTER: Pfingstl T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6911088 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature