A preliminary inquiry into the biogeography of the Tasmanian endemic freshwater crayfish genus Parastacoides Clark (Decapoda: Parastacidae)
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Abstract
Several factors have recently contributed to making Parastacoides more accessible to both biogeographic and phylogenetic studies. Firstly, large-scale collections have been undertaken in remote areas. The genus is being revised and the number of species will increase. Lastly, species’ distributions and range limits have been defined and mapped; this has been achieved both from collections and by field observations. Several features of the distribution of Parastacoides species are noteworthy; they are confined to the western half of the island of Tasmania, and many of the species have restricted, sympatric or overlapping distributions, whilst others have large, exclusive distributions. The distributions do not appear to reflect the axis of the major drainage systems, but rather they reflect the axis of the mountain ranges. A preliminary phylogenetic analysis, based on a series of morphological characters, has suggested the presence of at least three geographically-based clades within the genus. The objective of this biogeographic study is to develop hypotheses about the relationships between speciation and distribution within the Parastacoides species.
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Hansen B and Richardson AMM. (1999). A preliminary inquiry into the biogeography of the Tasmanian endemic freshwater crayfish genus Parastacoides Clark (Decapoda: Parastacidae). Freshwater Crayfish 12(1):854-861. doi:
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