Three new species and the molecular phylogeny of Antipathozoanthus from the Indo-Pacific Ocean (Anthozoa, Hexacorallia, Zoantharia)

By

Kise, Hiroki
Fujii, Takuma
Masucci, Giovanni
Biondi, Piera
Reimer, James

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

725

Pages

97-122

Subjects

antipatharian , cave-dwelling , diversity , Evolution , new species , substrate specificity

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.725.21006

 

Abstract

In this study, three new species of macrocnemic zoantharians (Hexacorallia, Zoantharia) are described from localities in the Indo-Pacific Ocean including the Red Sea, the Maldives, Palau, and southern Japan: Antipathozoanthus obscurus sp. n., A. remengesaui sp. n., and A. cavernus sp. n. Although the genus Antipathozoanthus is currently restricted to species living on antipatharians, A. obscurus sp. n. is not associated with any living substrate and instead is found on coral reef carbonate substrate within narrow caves or cracks. The two new species that have association with antipatharians, A. remengesaui sp. n. and A. cavernus sp. n., can be distinguished by their relative coenenchyme development and the antipatharian species that each uses as substrate. Additionally, all new species described in this study have unique nuclear internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA (ITS-rDNA) sequences. Our results indicate that more phylogenetic studies focusing on increasing the numbers of species examined within each of the genera of Parazoanthidae are required in order to better understand the evolutionary history of substrate specificity within the family Parazoanthidae.