Machumvi Ndogo – preparing for a dive in the dark

In 2008 UiB colleagues Kenneth Meland and Endre Willassen surveyed karst caves in Zanzibar together with Hajj M. Hajj in search for aquatic crustacea. Many of these localities have so-called anchialine conditions in which marine water penetrates inland and can mix more or less with fresh ground water.

Atyid shrimps were sampled in salt water about 300 m inland from the coast.

One of these sites had three species of small shrimps of the family Atyidae. The phylogenetic relationships of these shrimps have now been analysed by an international team of “cave men” based on full mitochondrial genome sequencing performed at the University of the Balears.

Molecular clock estimates date the relationship of the Zanzibarian species to other known species in the Atlantic and Indo-pacific  to the Cretaceous period.

Shrimps from Osine Cave

The paper is available from this link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-03107-y

Species divergence history of the study group. Click for details.