Natural history collections as a basis for sound biodiversity assessments: Plexauridae (Octocorallia, Holaxonia) of the Naturalis CANCAP and Tyro Mauritania II expeditions

By

Sampaio, Íris
Carreiro-Silva, Marina
Freiwald, André
Menezes, Gui
Grasshoff, Manfred

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

870

Pages

Jan-32

Subjects

Alcyonacea , CANCAP project , deep water , Geographical distribution , Tyro Mauritania II , Zoological collections

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.870.35285

 

Abstract

Mapping biodiversity is the marathon of the 21stCentury as an answer to the present extinction crisis. A century in which science is also characterised by large scientific datasets collected through new technologies aiming to fill gaps in our knowledge of species distributions. However, most species records rely on observations that are not linked to specimens, which does not allow verification of species hypotheses by other scientists. Natural history museums form a verifiable source of biodiversity records which were made by taxonomists. Nonetheless, these museums seem to be forgotten by biologists in scientific fields other than taxonomy or systematics. Naturalis Biodiversity Center (NBC) in Leiden is care keeper of large collections of marine organisms, which were sampled in the Northeast Atlantic during the CANCAP andTyroMauritania II expeditions (1976–1988). Many octocorals were sampled and deposited in the NBC collection, where they became available for study and were partially identified by the senior author (M.G.) in the 1980s. Nonetheless, no checklist or taxonomic revision was published so far with the complete results. In 2016 the first author visited NBC to examine NE Atlantic Plexauridae octocorals. Plexauridae octocoral-vouchered records were listed and mapped to reveal high standard primary biodiversity records unreported so far for the NE Atlantic Ocean. Twenty-four Plexauridae species with ~ six putative new species to science were discovered and eleven new biogeographical records were made from distinct Macaronesian archipelagos. Finally, new depth range records were found for three species at sea basin level and for eight species at a regional scale.