Journal Article
Anchialine biodiversity in the Turks and Caicos Islands: New discoveries and current faunal composition
Gonzalez B.C., Martínez A., Olesen J., Truskey S.B., Ballou L., Allentoft-Larsen M., Daniels J., Heinerth P., Parrish M., Manco N., Ward J., Iliffe T.M., Osborn K.J. and Worsaae K.,
Record Number:
4649
Year:
2020
Journal:
International Journal of Speleology
Pages:
71-86
Volume:
49
Abstract:
Lying at the southernmost point of the Lucayan Archipelago, the Turks and Caicos Islands are
amongst the better studied localities for anchialine cave biodiversity. For nearly five decades,
novel invertebrate fauna, comprised primarily of crustaceans, have been collected from these
tidally influenced pools – but new findings are always on the horizon. Herein we present new
records of crustaceans and annelids from anchialine blue holes and horizontal caves of the
Turks and Caicos. These findings include two potentially new species of meiofaunal annelids
and a new species of remipede collected from a shallow water cave pool. Our 2019 expedition
additionally expands known faunal distributions for several taxa across the Caicos islands,
and raises the biodiversity of the region to 35 species, 13 of them considered endemic. This
is the first comprehensive faunal list for the anchialine systems in the Caicos Bank.
subterranean fauna, anchialine, Polynoidae, Nerillidae, Remipedia
Times Cited:
2