Author/Editor		Sket, Boris
Title		Distribution of Proteus (Amphibia: Urodela: Protediae) and its possible explanation
Type		članek
Source		J Biogeogr
Vol. and No.		Letnik 24
Publication year		1997
Volume		str. 263-80
Language		eng, slo
Abstract		Approximately 250 localities of the nominal species Proteus anguinus Laurenti 1768 have been evaluated and listed. The species is limited to the Dinaric Karst; it ranges from the Isonzo-Soča River in southeastern Venezia Giulia, Italy, through the souhern half of Slovenia, southern Croatia,and parts of Bosnia and Hercegovina, to the Trebišnica River in eastern Hercegovina. In some regions, populations have been extinguished or endangered by pollution or human-induced hydrographical changes. The distribution of Proteus is compared with those of some cave Crustacea: Troglocaris (Crustacea: Decapoda), Monolistra, and Titanethes (Crustacea: Isopoda). The similarity of distribution patterns within this ecologically diverse assemblage supports their paleogeographic rather than ecological foundation. The paleogeographical and paleoclimatological data, in combination with the physiological requirements of Proteus, strongly suggest that these animals invaded the caves, at least in the NW parts of their ranges, only after the last glaciations, within the last 10,000 years. It is suggested that the high heterozygosity of populations can best be explained by fusion of some locally restricted imigration waves. The close morphological similarity of nearly all populations of Proteus is probably due to the convergent evolution of previously differentiated populations (or even species) after their withdrawal underground.
Descriptors		PROTEIDAE ECOLOGY PALEONTOLOGY GEOGRAPHY