ARIANI, A. P. & K. J. WITTMANN, 2004: Mysidacea (Crustacea) as ecological and biogeographical markers in Mediterranean brackish environments. Rapports de la Commission internationale pour l'Exploration scientifique de la Mer Méditerranée, 37: 479.
The brackish water mysid faunas (especially Diamysis) are well differentiated between the eastern and the western basins of the Mediterranean. Unlike the more species-rich meta- to polyhaline waters, the meso- and oligohaline waters frequently show only a single mysid species, that is D. mesohalobia in the eastern and the vicariant Mesopodopsis slabberi in the western Mediterranean. Paleogeographical and paleoecological considerations suggest that certain mysids with low-salinity affinities may have colonized the Mediterranean from the East (brackish Paratethys) while other ‘brackish’ species may have immigrated from the West, i.e. from the Atlantic, at the end of the Messinian salinity crisis.
faunas; lagoons; salinity; paleoecology
Diamysis bahirensis; Diamysis camassai; Diamysis hebraica; Diamysis lagunaris; Diamysis mesohalobia gracilipes; Diamysis mesohalobia heterandra; Diamysis sirbonica; Leptomysis truncata; Mesopodopsis slabberi; Mysidae; Neomysis integer; Paramysis helleri; Siriella armata; Siriella clausii; Siriella jaltensis