https://phys.org/news/2018-07-cave-shrimp-mystery-geology-evolution.html

"By comparison of genetic markers in the Typhlocaris species we found that one of the Israeli species, Typhlocaris ayyaloni, was genetically closer to the species from Italy", explains Professor Yair Ahituv from Bar-Ilan Universität, Israel, co-author of the study. "Although Typhylocaris salientina, lives more than thousand kilometres away it is closer related than to the other Israeli species Typhlocaris galilea, which is only 120 kilometres away", Ahituv continues.

To explain this strange genetic affinity, the researchers dated the species divergence based on the age of a geological formation in the area of the cave in the Galilee. Accordingly, Typhlocaris galilea was separated from the ancestor shrimp seven million years ago, during the uplift of the central mountain ridge of Israel. Then, about 5.7 million years ago, at the time of the Messinian Salinity event, when the Mediterranean Sea has almost completely dried up, Typhlocaris ayyalon and Typhylocaris salientina diverged into two separate species.