TY  - JOUR
JF  - Acarologia
T1  - Snapshots of Oribatid Speciation II – Resolving a taxonomic nightmare – Plate tectonics and intertidal oribatid diversification in the tropical Caribbean.
VL  - 66
IS  - Suppl
SP  - 201
EP  - 201
PY  - 2026
SN  - 0044-586X
SN  - 2107-7207
PB  - Les Amis d'Acarologia
AU  - Tobias, Pfingstl
AU  - Shimpei F., Hiruta
AU  - Satoshi, Shimano
UR  - https://doi.org/10.24349/klc9-woek
DO  - 10.24349/klc9-woek
DA  - 2026-07-20
ET  - 2026-07-20
KW  - Cryptic species
KW  - Carinozetes
KW  - Morphological stasis
KW  - Plate tectonics
KW  - Phylogeography
AB  - Caribbean intertidal mites, Carinozetes (Selenoribatidae), represent a taxonomic nightmare characterized by morphological uniformity yet harboring cryptic genetic lineages with species-level divergences. Three C. mangrovi lineages (Northern, Antillean, Pacific) exhibit distinct geographic distributions despite morphological stasis. This contrasts sharply with Japanese Ryukyu intertidal oribatids, where species boundaries are clearly defined. The underlying mechanisms driving this enigmatic intraspecific variation in Carinozetes have remained completely unresolved, presenting a persistent taxonomic challenge. We aimed to elucidate the evolutionary processes responsible for Caribbean lineage divergence and resolve this long-standing biogeographic puzzle. 30 published and 248 unpublished mitochondrial COI sequences from Caribbean oribatid taxa were analyzed using molecular dating techniques. Inferred divergence times were compared to major geological events including Central American Seaway closure and Caribbean plate tectonics. Initial lineage diversification occurred during the Middle to Late Miocene (15–9 Ma) when Neogene tectonic movements isolated Antillean terranes and restricted Central American Seaway circulation. The C. mangrovi Antillean lineage represents an early divergent population that maintained large, stable populations throughout subsequent climate cycles. In contrast, Pacific and Northern lineages experienced repeated population bottlenecks due to cooler temperatures during glacial-interglacial cycles, yet adapted and developed distinct intraspecific variations around 2.5 Ma. This timing parallels the stabilization of Caribbean coral community composition during the establishment of modern glacial cycles. Unlike Japanese Ryukyu intertidal oribatids with distinct species boundaries, Caribbean lineages diversified continuously under relatively stable thermal regimes. The C. mangrovi complex may evolve from three intraspecific variations into three distinct species. These contrasting evolutionary trajectories between different geographic theaters—the temperate to subtropical waters around Japan and the tropical Caribbean Sea—suggest that intertidal oribatid mite speciation, previously thought to follow simple ocean current-driven dispersal mechanisms, actually reflects global plate tectonic processes and temperature-driven distributional boundaries of four families spanning from Arctic to tropical regions.
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