![]() ![]() dunan diverged from its sister species soon after the diversification of the species group had started. formosae species group occurred during the arc-continent collision in Taiwan after 5 Ma and M. Instead, our results suggested that the speciation within the M. ![]() formosae, took place 8 Ma in late Miocene, when Taiwan and the Ryukyu region were supposedly first separated from each other and from the Eurasian continent. dunan and its Taiwanese sister species, M. Phylogenetic analyses and divergence time estimation rejected the hypothesis that the separation between M. We highlighted strong evidence supporting that giant earthworms collected from Yonagunijima, the westernmost island of the Ryukyus, represent a new member of the species group, and further described it as a new species, Metaphire dunan sp. We presented the first study looking into the earthworm fauna between Taiwan and the Ryukyu Archipelago under a phylogeographical context, and investigated the systematics and phylogeography of the giant earthworms in the Metaphire formosae species group endemic to this region. However, little is known about the zoogeography of terrestrial invertebrates in this region. This endemism has resulted from complex histories of insularization caused by geological events and dispersal through land bridges or across the sea during a timeframe of several million years. The non-volant terrestrial fauna of the Ryukyu Archipelago is characterized by high endemism with island groups forming distinct biogeographical regions separated by straits. ![]()
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