Shallow-water and not deep-sea as most plausible origin for cave-dwelling Paramisophria species (Copepoda : Calanoida : Arietellidae), with description of three new species from Mediterranean bathyal hyperbenthos and littoral caves

Three new species of the hyperbenthic calanoid copepod genus Paramisophria T. Scott are described from the Spanish zone of the Mediterranean. They app arently exhibit there an allopatric depth zonation pattern from littoral ca ves to bathyal floors in excess of 1200 m. The presence of these highly ada pted hyperbenthic taxa in deep waters of the Mediterranean demonstrates the existence there of a specific near-bottom calanoid community similar to th at described for the rest of the world oceans. The discovery of deep-water Paramisophria species has stimulated the investigation of the pattern of ha bitat utilization in the genus and an attempt to identify its ancestral hab itat. This analysis supports a shallow-water origin, with taxa from both an chialine caves and the bathyal hyperbenthos having apparently been derived independently and repeatedly from a shallow-water ancestral stem.