ABSTRACT
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 269 Background to Chapter ..................................................................................................................... 270
Characteristics of Obligate Subterranean Animals ................................................................................ 271 Troglobionts and Biogeography ............................................................................................................. 272 Geological and Climatic Settings ........................................................................................................... 272 Intercontinental Connections ..................................................................................................................274 Tethyan Connections .............................................................................................................................. 275 Discordant Geological Setting ............................................................................................................... 277 New Zealand .......................................................................................................................................... 278 Sampling Intensity and Biodiversity Measures ..................................................................................... 278 Bathynellacea ......................................................................................................................................... 279 Ostracoda ............................................................................................................................................... 279 Copepods and the Pulsating Desert Hypothesis ..................................................................................... 280 Distributional Hypotheses ...................................................................................................................... 281
Pulsating Desert Hypothesis ............................................................................................................. 281 Headwater Isolation and Subterranean Island Models ..................................................................... 283 Aridity as a Driver of Subterranean Colonisation ............................................................................. 283 Pleistocene Effects in Periglacial Areas ............................................................................................ 283
Concluding Remarks .............................................................................................................................. 285 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 286 References .............................................................................................................................................. 286
2005). This awakening is surprising because Australia was long considered to be a poor prospect for those obligate subterranean species – troglobionts – that inhabit the subterranean voids.
