Connectivity of the squat lobsters Shinkaia crosnieri (Crustacea: Decapoda: Galatheidae) between the cold seep and hydrothermal vent habitats in the Northwest Pacific.

Abstract

The deep-sea squat lobster, Shinkaia crosnieri Baba and Williams, 1988, previously only observed in hydrothermal vents, was recently found in a cold-seep site off the coast of southwestern Taiwan in the South China Sea. Although no morphological difference was detected, molecular genetic analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene revealed that the vent and cold-seep populations form separate clades with 2.1%–3.8% sequence divergence. Nevertheless, no significant genetic distinction was detected in the nuclear adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) intron gene. These results indicate that vent and cold seep S. crosnieri are conspecific, but represent separate populations.