First detection of an ocellate octopus in the Revillagigedos ecoregion, a biodiversity hotspot located in the Tropical East Pacific Province

By

Valdez-Cibrián, Alejandra
Díaz-Santana-Iturrios, Mariana
Landa Jaime, Victor
Michel-Morfin, Jesus Emilio

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

986

Pages

81--100

Subjects

Benthic octopus , Cephalopoda , Octopod , synonym , Tropical Pacific

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.986.53250

 

Abstract

The biodiversity of mollusks, particularly cephalopods, has not been exhaustively determined in the Revillagigedos ecoregion, which is a biodiversity hotspot for several marine groups located in the Tropical East Pacific Province. In our study, we detected and examined ocellate octopuses from Socorro and Clarion Islands, and determined their identity using morphological criteria and molecular data from two mitochondrial genes (COIII and COI). The taxon identified was Octopus oculifer, a species considered endemic to the Galapagos Archipelago. In addition, according to our analyses, O. mimus, O. hubbsorum and O. oculifer are very closely related and may represent a species complex comprised of three morphotypes. We found that the evolutionary relationships among octopuses are not determined by the presence of ocelli. This study is the first to report a clade represented by ocellate and non-ocellate species, in addition, the identity of cephalopods in the Revillagigedos was determined with analytical support.