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Biogeography
of chitons in the Australian-New Zealand region
The
Australian-New Zealand region has an extremely rich chiton
fauna, with approximately one quarter of the world’s chiton
species found there, of which at least 75% are endemic. In
particular, the mostly endemic chiton fauna of southern
Australia is the most diverse and species rich of any area in
the world. Chitons in this region also have a very wide range of
habitats and ecology compared with species elsewhere, from
interstitial to epiphytic, and from specialist herbivores to
omnivores to specialist carnivores.
This high diversity is also been evident in the fossils from the
Tertiary period in the region, and has its’ origins in the
mass extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous period – which
saw the end of the dinosaurs and the rise of the mammals.
Chitons were survivors, and they have evolved and diversified to
fill niches vacated by other molluscs that did not survive –
and they have maintained this ever since. |
