Chilean provinces to the tip of the Eastern South American region. Another cluster
well separated region includes the Caribbean, West Indian, Lusitanica and Brazilian provinces. Earlier studies (Maluf 1988a, 1991) and results presented here
suggest that the echinoderm faunas of the Panamic, Galápagos and the Chilean
provinces are biogeographically related. There is a low level of association among
echinoderm species from the Chilean fauna and Eastern South American
Fig. 16.8 Negative relationship between the percentage of species of crinoids and holothurians
of the North, Central and South American countries and in the Canary Islands
Fig. 16.9 Multivariate analysis nMDS plot of distance-related echinoderm species assemblage
structure from Latinamerica based on species composition data and Bray-Curtis similarity
measure. The faunal similarity between biogeographical provinces is represented by the relative
distance. MEX Mexico; REV Revillagigedo Archipelago; GUA Guatemala; SAL El Salvador;
HON Honduras; NIC Nicaragua; CRC Costa Rica; COC Cocos Island; PAN Panama; COL
Colombia; MAL Malpelo Island; GAL Galápagos Archipelago; ECU Ecuador; PER Perú; CHL
Chile; PAS Eastern Islands. BEL Belize; VEN Venezuela; BRA Brazil; URG Uruguay, ARG
Argentina; MAV Malvinas Islands; CUB Cuba; HAI Haiti; RDO Dominican Republic, PRI Puerto
Rico; CAN Canary Islands; atl: Atlantic; car: Caribbean; pac: Pacific
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A. Pérez-Ruzafa et al.