Some remarkable distribution patterns in stygobiont Amphipoda

Abstract

Vicariant distribution patterns in stygobiont amphipod genera can be explained by plate tectonic effects (opening of the Atlantic) and by Tethyan events. Consequently these must be ‘old’ genera. Many stygobionts have congeneric relatives in shallow marine waters. The occurrence of old genera on ‘young’ islands seems to indicate that the young islands must have existed as shallow banks or seamounts in the period when the Atlantic started to open, and before the disruption of the Tethys Sea.