Historical influences on deep-sea isopod diversity in the Atlantic Ocean

Most isopod crustaceans in the North Atlantic deep sea belong to the suborder Asellota. In contrast, South Atlantic isopod faunas have a significant component of flabelliferan isopods, a phylogenetic clade that contains suborders derived evolutionarily later than the Asellota. The flabelliferans decrease diversity from shallow water to deep water and on a south-to-north latitudinal gradient. Although many asellote families are endemic to the deep sea, none of the flabelliferan families appear to have evolved in the abyss. Recent colonisations of the deep sea, which may have been limited to the southern hemisphere by oceanographic conditions, have significant consequences for observed regional diversities of some taxa. Instability in oceanographic conditions owing to glaciation and benthic storms may have further limited benthic species richness of the North Atlantic deep-sea benthos.