Abstract
Similarities and differences between the fauna of inland saline waters in Australia and on the Altiplano are explored and explanations sought.
Elements common to both continents include the calanoid copepod genus Boeckella (B. triarticulata in Australia, B. poopoensis and B. meteoris in South America) and the cladoceran genus Daphniopsis. Salinity data for Altiplano lakes are given for six species of Boeckella and for Daphniopsis.
Ostracods have adapted to the open water of saline lakes in Australia but not in South America, a difference that may reflect past differences in the degree of predation by birds. In South America, diatoms are grazed by the flamingos Phoenicoparrus andinus and P. jamesi, while in Australia the main diatom grazer is probably the aquatic oniscoid isopod Haloniscus searlei. However, at least four species of flamingos were present in Australia during the late Cenozoic and one or more of these may well have grazed diatoms. The extinction of diatom-grazing or carnivorous flamingos, or both, in Australia may have been factors in the unique colonization of inland saline waters by H. searlei.
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Bayly, I.A.E. The fauna of athalassic saline waters in Australia and the Altiplano of South America: comparisons and historical perspectives. Hydrobiologia 267, 225–231 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00018804
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00018804