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Speciation and Age Revision of the Atacaman Snail Bostryx variabilis Herm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alan K. Craig*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida 33431 USA

Abstract

Field evidence from the Atacama Desert of northern Chile indicates that the stratigraphic position of the land snail Bostryx variabilis Herm has been incorrectly assigned to a marine series of the lower Pleistocene. Isotopic dating proves that the snail is a recently extinct Holocene taxon requiring no special paleoenvironmental explanations for its presence. However, the snail appears to offer an example of stress-induced speciation in confirmation of the “punctuated equilibrium” theory of evolution. It was probably transported from a fog oasis mountain habitat to a lower, hyperarid hostile environment by a sudden mudflow.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
University of Washington

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