The Role of the Southeastern European Mountains as Cradles and Corridors of European Biodiversity: Insights From Agelenid Spiders

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The Role of the Southeastern European Mountains as Cradles and Corridors of European Biodiversity: Insights From Agelenid Spiders

ABSTRACT

Aim

The Southeastern European Mountain System (SEEMS) is a well-known glacial refugium for European fauna. Bridging the Mediterranean and Caucasus biodiversity hotspots, it is a melting point for diverse faunal elements, but also a center of origin and subsequent dispersal of a unique component of European biodiversity. Here, we tested the hypothesis of the Southeastern European origin of the agelenid spider genera Inermocoelotes and Urocoras by investigating their phylogeny and biogeography.

Location

Southeastern Europe (the Balkans, Carpathians, Dinarides), Central/Western Europe, and the Mediterranean basin.

Taxon

Funnel-web spiders, the genera Inermocoelotes and Urocoras (Araneae: Agelenidae: Coelotinae).

Methods

We performed molecular phylogenetic analyses, divergence time estimation, and ancestral area reconstruction. To investigate the evolutionary patterns of their climatic niche preferences, we reconstructed ancestral states for the two bioclimatic variables: the mean temperature of the coldest quarter (Bio11) and the precipitation of the driest quarter (Bio17).

Results

Our results identify the SEEMS region as a centre of origin of the two genera, providing compelling evidence for the combined influence of both geological and climatic events on their diversification and subsequent dispersal towards Central and Western Europe. We propose that two key geological factors were the isolation of Southeastern Europe from the continent during the Serravallian and the formation of a temporary narrow seaway that separated the Easternmost Balkans from the Dinarides-Pindus mountain range in the Early Messinian. The Middle Miocene Climatic Transition, the Mediterranean aridification around 9 Ma, the cooling and glaciation events during the late Tortonian and early Messinian, and the Pleistocene glaciations further shaped the present-day diversity of these lineages.

Main Conclusions

Several lineages originating in the SEEMS expanded their distribution range to Central and Western Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. This highlights the region as a diversification hotspot and an important contributor to current European biodiversity.


Dimitrov, D., Indzhov, S., Stoianova, D., Dimitrov, D., & Arnedo, M. A. (2026). The Role of the Southeastern European Mountains as Cradles and Corridors of European Biodiversity: Insights From Agelenid Spiders. Journal of Biogeography, 53(9), e70347. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.70347