Freshwater crab systematics and biogeography: the legacy of Richard Bott (*1902-†1974)

Abstract

Richard Bott contributed substantially to the taxonomy and systematics of all groups of primary freshwater crabs, laying the foundations for any later work in this field. It should be noted that his work preceded the modern understanding of evolutionary and phylogenetic concepts. When Bott started his work on freshwater crabs in the 1950's synthetic evolutionary theory and phylogenetic systematics were just being developed, and were rarely incorporated into taxonomic works. His works profoundly influenced the systematics and higher taxonomy of freshwater crabs. Bott assumed that a number of different marine crab ancestors of freshwater crabs made multiple transitions into freshwater, and thereby gave rise to the different families and genera of freshwater crabs. His hypotheses on the biogeography and evolutionary origins of the freshwater crabs are difficult to test because the marine sister-group(s) of primary freshwater crabs still remain elusive. Keywords: biogeography; freshwater crabs; phylogenetic systematics; Richard Bott; taxonomy