Hidden diversity in spring snails from the Andean Altiplano, the second highest plateau on Earth, and the Atacama Desert, the driest place in the world

摘要

Background The Chilean Altiplano and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile harbor isolated hydrological systems or oases where it is possible to find minute aquatic snails of the genus Heleobia whose taxonomy is uncertain and where many populations remain unknown. Here, we obtained samples from 30 localities distributed in the region and used molecular (12S and 16S mitochondrial genes) and morphological (penis) characters to investigate diversity of this poorly known fauna.