Finding of a putative Lake Baikal endemic, Lindavia minuta, in distant lakes near the Arctic pole in Yakutia (Russia)

Abstract

In the northern lakes of Yakutia, Vorota and Labynkyr, which are 2100 kilometres northeast of Lake Baikal, we found a putative Lake Baikal endemic, Lindavia minuta. Morphological analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling showed that L. minuta populations from Yakutian and Transbaikalian lakes belong to the same (morpho) species. The possible dispersal history is discussed. The most probable hypothesis is that L. minuta was present in the Baikal basin during several Pleistocene glaciation cycles, and since Lake Baikal was previously connected to the River Lena, it is possible that there was a stable population of this species in the river, and that the river carried some cells to other suitable habitats. During glaciated periods, L. minuta could also have survived for longer periods in several ice dam lakes and possibly dispersed further north-east to the lakes in Yakutia.