Abstract
Material collected from the RRS Discovery Cruise 300 to the Crozet Islands contained a new species of elasipodid holothurian Peniagone crozeti sp. nov. This new species dominated the megafauna at an abyssal site to the east of the islands under an area of high surface productivity, but was found in low abundance at a site located south of the islands under a high nutrient low chlorophyll regime, typical for many areas in the Southern Ocean. Peniagone crozeti differs from other members of the genus by the shape of its calcareous deposits.References
Agatep, C.P. (1967) Some elasipodid holothurians of Antarctic and Subantarctic seas. Antarctic Research Series 11, 49–71.
Billett, D.S.M. and Hansen, B. (1982) Abyssal aggregations of Kolga hyalina Danielssen and Koren (Echinodermata: Holothurioidea) in the north-east Atlantic ocean: A preliminary report. Deep-Sea Research, 29, 799–818.
Billett, D.S.M., Bett, B.J., Rice, A.L., Thurston M.H., Galéron J., Sibuet M.. & Wolff G.A.(2001) Long-term change in the megabenthos of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (NE Atlantic), Progress in Oceanography 50 (1–4), 325–348.
Bluhm, H. & Gebruk, A. (1999) Holothuroidea (Echinodermata) of the Peru Basin: ecological and taxonomic remarks based on underwater images. Marine Ecology, 20, 167–195.
Gebruk, A.V. (1990) Deep-Sea holothurians of the Elpidiidae family. Nauka, Moscow, 160 pp. (In Russian).
Gutt, J. & Piepenburg, D. (1991) Dense aggregations of three deep-sea holothurians in the southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 68, 277–285.
Hansen, B. (1975) Systematics and biology of the deep-sea holothurians. Part 1- Elasipoda. Galathea Report, 13, 1–262.
Hughes, J.A., Smith, T., Chaillan, F., Bett, B.J., Billett, D.S.M., Boorman, B., Fisher, E.H., Frenz, M. & Wolff, G.A. (2007) Two abyssal sites in the Southern Ocean influenced by different organic matter inputs: Environmental characterization and preliminary observations on the benthic foraminifera. Deep-Sea Reseach II, 54 (18–20), 2275–2290.
Ludwig, H. (1894) The Holothurioidea. Reports on an exploration off the west coasts of Mexico, Central and South America, and off the Galapagos Islands, in charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the U.S. Fish Comission Streamer "Albatross», during 1891. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, 17, 1–183.
Rowe, G.T. (1971) Observations on bottom currents and epibenthic populations in Hatteras Submarine Canyon. Deep-Sea Research, 18, 569–581.
Rowe, G.T. (1972) The exploration of submarine canyons and their benthic faunal assemblages. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 73, 159–169.
Ruhl, H.A. (2007) Abundance and size distribution dynamics of abyssal epibenthic megafauna in the northeast Pacific. Ecology, 88(5), 1250–1262.
Théel, H. (1882) Report on the Holothurioidea. Part I. Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S Challenger. Zoology, 4(13), 1–176.