Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Molecular phylogenetic approaches to test the Gondwana origin hypothesis of Indian subterranean fauna |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Shabuddin Shaik, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka |
Timeline Start Year : | 2022 |
Timeline End Year : | 2024 |
Contact info : | shabu.biologist@gmail.com |
Details
Executive Summary : | The evolution of any group of biota is always intricately linked to the geomorphological evolution of the area. The biota of the Indian subcontinent is influenced by its unique & remarkable tectonic history. India is placed in the Oriental Realm along with Southeast Asia, however, it also consists of elements from Africa, Palearctic as well as Gondwana. According to Mani (1974), the formation of the Assam gateway at the northeastern corner of India is “the most important phase in India’s biogeographical evolution,” facilitating extensive interchanges between the Indian & Asian biota & imparting to it a “predominantly oriental” fauna. Unlike the epigean biota, the subterranean fauna of India is thought to have retained its original Gondwanan heritage despite dramatic Late Cretaceous volcanism. In this regard a recent review by Karanth (2021) concluded that much of Indian’s tetrapod fauna dispersed into India. Karanth goes on to ask the question–“Does this mean that India does not harbor any animal lineages with Gondwanan history? Perhaps the right taxa are not being targeted”. In this context, the subterranean fauna might be an appropriate taxa, because of being recognized as suitable candidates for understanding historical biogeography & also as they are tied down to the landmass hence, largely unaffected by above ground changes. Therefore, subterranean fauna is an ideal group to address various biotic exchange scenarios & to test Gondwana origin hypothesis proposed for the Indian landmass. The subterranean domain of India has remained de facto terra incognita for its fauna till recently. The subsurface aquatic animals referred to as “subterranean fauna/stygofauna” (also stygobionts), are found in typical karst, alluvial & fractured rock aquifers. Stygofauna comprises largely various groups of invertebrates to vertebrates (ranging from protozoans to fishes), among them crustaceans accounting for 43% of the known stygofaunal diversity. Bathynellaceans together with Parastenocaridid copepods are characteristic elements amongst crustacean stygobionts. The PI has been working on systematics of these organisms since 2008 under the financial assistance of DST’s two completed projects (SR/SO/AS/25/2007 & SR/SO/AS-21/2011) yielded over 100 new subterranean taxa of which 71 taxa being formally described in SCI publications based on morphology. One of the disadvantages of utilizing morphological data in the stygofauna taxonomy is “morphological simplification” that often leads to underestimated diversity & difficult to derive their true phyletic relationships.Given this scenario, the genesis of this proposal lies in the fact that practically nothing is known about the origins & diversification patterns of Indian subterranean fauna despite having a vast & dense taxon survey, our capacity to answer numerous evolutionary & biogeographical problems has been limited due to the lack of solid molecular phylogenetic studies on Indian subterranean fauna till date. |
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