Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5418 No. 2: 28 Feb. 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-02-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5418.2.3
Page range: 159-171
Abstract views: 251
PDF downloaded: 123

A new species of the genus Ophiomyxa (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea: Ophiomyxidae) from the Mallorca Channel seamounts in the western Mediterranean

Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears (COB-IEO); CSIC; Moll de Ponent s/n; 07015 Palma; Spain
Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears (COB-IEO); CSIC; Moll de Ponent s/n; 07015 Palma; Spain
Centro Oceanográfico de Murcia (COMU-IEO); CSIC; el Varadero;1; 30740 Lo Pagan; Spain
Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears (COB-IEO); CSIC; Moll de Ponent s/n; 07015 Palma; Spain
Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears (COB-IEO); CSIC; Moll de Ponent s/n; 07015 Palma; Spain
Echinodermata Brittle star deep-sea Balearic Islands COI

Abstract

A new species belonging to the ophiuroid genus Ophiomyxa is described from the Mallorca Channel seamount, in the western Mediterranean Sea. It can be distinguished from other Ophiomyxa species by the lack of interradial marginal plates, three arm spines, the presence of two thin, transparent and completely perforated dorsal arm plates on each arm segment, the separate heptagonal ventral arm plates, the disk integument full of transparent rounded scales with scattered perforated ossicles, and a characteristic coloration of the disk, which in the living specimen is brown with abundant scattered bright white spots. Molecular analyses based on cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I (DNA barcode) clearly support the assignment of the new species to Ophiomyxa. This discovery highlights the importance of the Mallorca Channel seamounts for the Mediterranean biodiversity conservation, as they seem to provide a suitable habitat for several invertebrate species, including recent descriptions of species and new Mediterranean records, which apparently have not established permanent populations along the closest continental margin.

 

References

  1. Anadón, R. (1977) Equinodermos recogidos durante la campaña “Atlor VII” en las costas noroccidentales de África (noviembre 1975). Resultados Expediciones Científicas del Buque Oceanográfico Cornide de Saavedra, 6, 165–168.
  2. Clark, M.R., Rowden, A.A., Schlacher, T., Williams, A., Consalvey, M., Stocks, K.I., Rogers, A.D., O’Hara, T.D., White, M., Shank, T.M. & Hall-Spencer, J.M. (2010) The ecology of seamounts: structure, function, and human impacts. Annual Reviews in Marine Science, 2, 253–278. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-120308-081109
  3. Clark, A.H. (1952) Echinoderms from the Marshall Islands. Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 102, 265–303. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00963801.102-3302.265
  4. Clark, H.L. (1911) North Pacific Ophiurans in the collection of the United States National Museum. Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin, 75, 1–302. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.32556
  5. Corstorphine, E.A. (2010) DNA barcoding of echinoderms: Species diversity and patterns of molecular evolution. PhD Thesis, University of Guelph, Guelph, 144 pp.
  6. Díaz, J.A., Ramírez-Amaro, S. & Ordines, F. (2021) Sponges of Western Mediterranean seamounts: new genera, new species and new records. PeerJ, 9, e11879. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11879
  7. Díaz, J.A., Ordines, F., Massutí, E. & Cárdenas, P. (2023a) From caves to seamounts: the hidden diversity of tetractinellid sponges from the Balearic Islands, with the description of eight new species. PeerJ. [published online]
  8. Díaz, J.A., Ordinas, F., Farriols, MT., Melo-Aguilar, C. & Massutí, E. (2023b) Sponge assemblages in fishing grounds and seamounts of the Balearic Islands (western Mediterranean). Deep-Sea Research, Part I, 104211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104211
  9. Díaz, J.A., Ordines, F., Massutí, E. & Cárdenas, P. (2023) From caves to seamounts: the hidden diversity of tetractinellid sponges from the Balearic Islands, with the description of eight new species. PeerJ. [in press]
  10. Eichsteller, A., Taylor, J., Stöhr, S., Brix, S. & Martìnez Arbizu, P. (2022) DNA Barcoding of Cold-Water Coral-Associated Ophiuroid Fauna from the North Atlantic. Diversity, 14, 358. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14050358
  11. Folmer, O., Black, M., Hoeh,W., Lutz, R. & Vrijenhoek, R. (1994) DNA primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I from diverse metazoan invertebrates. Molecular Marine Biology and Biotechnology, 3, 294–299.
  12. Franklin, A. & O’Hara, T. (2008) A new species in the genus Ophiomyxa from South-west Australian waters (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea: Ophiomyxidae). Memoirs of Museum Victoria, 65, 57–62. https://doi.org/10.24199/j.mmv.2008.65.5
  13. Galil, B. & Zibrowius, H. (1998) First benthos samples from Erastothenes Seamount, eastern Mediterranean. Senckenbergiana Maritima, 28 (4/6), 111–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03043142
  14. Gondim, A.I., Alonso, C., Dias, T.L.P., Manso, C.L.C. & Christoffersen, M.L. (2013) A taxonomic guide to the brittle-stars (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea) from the State of Paraíba continental shelf, Northeastern Brazil. ZooKeys, 307, 4596. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.307.4673
  15. Hall, T.A. (1999) BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series, 41, 95–98.
  16. Hendler, G. (2018) Armed to the teeth: a new paradigm for the buccal skeleton of brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). Contributions in Science, 526, 189–311. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.324539
  17. Hugall, A.F., O'Hara, T.D., Hunjan, S., Nilsen, R. & Moussalli, A. (2016) An Exon-Capture System for the Entire Class Ophiuroidea. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 33 (1), 281–294. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msv216
  18. Koehler, R. (1897) Echinodermes recueillis par “l'Investigator” dans l'Ocean Indien. I. Les Ophiures de mer profonde. Annales des Sciences Naturelles Zoologie, 8, 277–372.
  19. Koehler, R. (1922) Ophiurans of the Philippine Seas and adjacent waters. Contributions to the biology of the Philippine Archipelago and adjacent regions. Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin, 100, 1–624. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.32917
  20. Lyman, T. (1875) Zoological Results of the Hassler Expedition. 2. Ophiuridae and Astrophytidae. Illustrated catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 8 (2), 1–34.
  21. Lyman, T. (1883) Reports on the results of dredging, under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, in the Carribbean Sea (1878-79), and on the east coast of the United States, during the summer of 1880, by the U.S. coast survey steamer “Blake”, commander J.R. Bartlett, U.S.N., commanding. XX. Report on the Ophiuroidea. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, 10 (6), 227–287.
  22. Massutí, E., Sánchez-Guillamón, O., Farriols, M.T., Palomino, D., Frank, A., Bárcenas, P., Rincón, B., Martínez-Carreño, N., Keller, S., López-Rodríguez, C., Díaz, J.A., López-González, N., Marco-Herrero, E., Fernandez-Arcaya, U., Valls, M., Ramírez-Amaro, S., Ferragut, F., Joher, S., Ordinas, F. & Vázquez, J-T. (2022) Improving Scientific Knowledge of Mallorca Channel Seamounts (Western Mediterranean) within the Framework of Natura 2000 Network. Diversity, 14 (1), 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14010004
  23. Matsumoto, H. (1915) A new classification of the Ophiuroidea: with descriptions of new genera and species. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 67, 43–92.
  24. Mortensen, T. (1927) Handbook of the Echinoderms of the British Isles. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 471 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.6841
  25. Mortensen, T. (1933a) Papers from Dr. Th. Mortensen's Pacific Expedition 1914–16. LXV. Echinoderms of South Africa. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening, 93, 215400.
  26. Mortensen, T. (1933b) Ophiuroidea. Danish Ingolf Expedition, 4 (8), 1–121.
  27. Mortensen, T. (1936) Echinoidea and Ophiuroidea. Discovery Reports, 12, 199348. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.8051
  28. O’Hara, T.D., Stöhr, S., Hugall, A.F., Thuy, B. & Martynov, A. (2018) Morphological diagnoses of higher taxa in Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) in support of a new classification. European Journal of Taxonomy, 416, 1–35. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2018.416
  29. Okanishi, M. & Fujita, T. (2013) Molecular phylogeny based on increased number of species and genes revealed more robust family-level systematics of the order Euryalida (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). Molecular Phylogenetic and Evolution, 69 (3), 566–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.07.021
  30. Okanishi, M. & Fujita, Y. (2018) A new species of Ophioconis (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 131 (1), 163–174. https://doi.org/10.2988/18-00001
  31. Ordines, F., Ramírez-Amaro, S., Fernandez-Arcaya, U., Marco-Herrero, E. & Massutí, E. (2019) First occurrence of an Ophiohelidae species in the Mediterranean: the high abundances of Ophiomyces grandis from the Mallorca Channel seamounts. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 99 (8), 1817–1823. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315419000808
  32. Paterson, G.L.J. (1985) The deep-sea Ophiuroidea of the North Atlantic Ocean. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), 49, 1–162.
  33. Reiss, H., Kröncke, I. & Ehrich, S. (2006) Estimating the catching efficiency of a 2-m beam trawl for sampling epifauna by removal experiments. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 63, 1453–1464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icesjms.2006.06.001
  34. Ronquist, F., Teslenko, M., Van Der Mark, P., Ayres, D.L., Darling, A., Hohna, S. & Huelsenbeck, J.P. (2012) Mrbayes 3.2: Efficient Bayesian phylogenetic inference and model choice across a large model space. Systematic Biology, 61 (3), 539–542. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/sys029
  35. Say, T. (1825) On the species of the Linnaean genus Asterias inhabiting the coast of the U.S. Journal of the Academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia, 5, 141–154.
  36. Smith, A.B., Paterson, G.L.J. & Lafay, B. (1995) Ophiuroid phylogeny and higher taxonomy: morphological, molecular and palaentological perspectives. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 114, 213–243. https://doi.org/10.1006/zjls.1995.0024
  37. Stöhr, S., O’Hara, T.D. & Thuy, B. (2012) Global diversity of brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). PLoS ONE, 7, e31940. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031940
  38. Stöhr, S., O’Hara, T.D. & Thuy, B. (Eds.) (2024) World Ophiuroidea Database. Available from: https://www.marinespecies.org/ophiuroidea (accessed 22 January 2024)
  39. Tamura, K., Stecher, G., Peterson, D., Filipski, A. & Kumar, S. (2013) MEGA6: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Version 6.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 30, 2725–2729. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst197
  40. Thompson, J.D., Higgins, D.G. & Gibson, T.J. (1994) CLUSTAL W: Improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Research, 22 (22), 4673–4680. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/22.22.4673
  41. Tortonese, E. (1965) Fauna d’Italia. Echinodermata. Edizioni Calderini, Bologna, 419 pp.
  42. Verrill, A.E. (1899) Report on the Ophiuroidea collected by the Bahama expedition in 1893. Bulletin of the Laboratories of Natural History of the State of Iowa, 5, 1–88.
  43. Verrill, A.E. (1900) VII. North American Ophiuroidea. I.-Revision of certain families and genera of West Indian Ophiurans. II.-A faunal catalogue of the known species of West Indian Ophiurans. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 10, 301–371. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.7032
  44. Würtz, M., Rovere, M. & Bo, M. (2015) Introducing the Mediterranean seamount atlas: general aspects. In: Würtz, M. & Rovere, M. (Eds.), Atlas of the Mediterranean Seamounts and Seamount-Like Structures. IUCN, Málaga, pp. 11–19. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2015.07.en

How to Cite

Ordines, F., Ramírez-Amaro, S., Calero, B., Farriols, M.T. & Massutí, E. (2024) A new species of the genus Ophiomyxa (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea: Ophiomyxidae) from the Mallorca Channel seamounts in the western Mediterranean. Zootaxa, 5418 (2), 159–171. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5418.2.3