Bathyal Mollusca from the cold-water coral biotope of Santa Maria di Leuca (Apulian margin, southern Italy)

Abstract

This paper describes 97 molluskan species (45 Bivalvia, 3 Scaphopoda, 49 Gastropoda) recovered from bathyal bottoms off Santa Maria di Leuca (Puglia, Italy), in the northern Ionian Sea, and provides data about their taxonomy, geographical distribution, habitat, ecological requirements and fossil record. Only 6 species remain unidentified, and all are illustrated. The bivalve-dominated assemblages belong to the so-called "cold-water coral ecosystem". They appear to depend mainly on substrate characteristics, with faunas related to hard substrate around coral-colonized mound tops, and mud-related ones in inter-mound areas, respectively. Nuculanoida and Pectinoidea among bivalves, and Conoidea and Pyramidelloidea among gastropods are the most diverse suprafamilial groups. The present paper is the first comprehensive taxonomic overview of Mediterranean bathyal mollusks including larval shell characters.

The family Raphitomidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Conoidea) in the Greek Seas with the description of two new species

“…Habitat and distribution Coralligenous bottoms from 100 to 400 m of the Mediterranean Sea [ 22 , 31 ]. Pleurotomella gibbera is referred as a species of a rather restricted distribution from the Central and East Atlantic to the West and Central Mediterranean Sea [ 36 ].…”

Molluscs from benthic habitats of the Gazul mud volcano (Gulf of Cádiz)

“…The species richness of Gazul is also much higher than those 18 species of molluscs found by Olu-Le Roy et al (2004) in five MVs from the eastern Mediterranean or by Ritt et al (2012) in the Mediterranean Ridge area (Napoli and Amsterdam MVs), where they found a total of 19 taxa of molluscs but only 10 to species level. Comparable species richness values have been observed in other deep areas of the southern Iberian Peninsula, such as the Djibouti bank (Gofas et al 2014) and the Alboran Island platform (Peñas et al 2006), both in the Alboran Sea, which have high species richness compared with other studied bathyal zones of the Mediterranean Sea (Negri and Corselli 2016) or the North Atlantic Ocean (Bergquist et al 2003, Henry andRoberts 2007). Furthermore, additional species are known to occur on the Gazul MV, such as those captured by the fishing fleet on adjacent bottoms (e.g.…”

Benthic invertebrates associated with subfossil cold-water coral frames and hardgrounds in the Albanian deep waters (Adriatic Sea)

“…Shells of the holoplanktic thecosomatous pteropod Cavolinia gibbosa, shed from the water column, also occurred. As a whole, the fauna is characterized by typical epibathyal mollusks of the Mediterranean Sea (Oliverio, 2008;Negri and Corselli, 2016). Station AL15SE provided the highest number of species, all already previously reported for the deep Adriatic Sea (Taviani, 1978;Panetta et al, 2013;Negri and Corselli, 2016).…”

“…As a whole, the fauna is characterized by typical epibathyal mollusks of the Mediterranean Sea (Oliverio, 2008;Negri and Corselli, 2016). Station AL15SE provided the highest number of species, all already previously reported for the deep Adriatic Sea (Taviani, 1978;Panetta et al, 2013;Negri and Corselli, 2016). The large majority of the mollusk fauna is represented by taxa dwelling on mobile bottoms such as the infaunal mud-dwelling bivalves Yoldiella philippiana and Abra longicallus (Figure 4).…”

“…The presence of gastropods, such as Emarginula adriatica, Clelandella miliaris, Putzeysia wiseri, and Alvania cimicoides, and bivalves, A. nodulosa, Bathyarca philippiana, Karnekampia sulcata, and Spondylus gussoni, is consistent with, although not exclusive to, CWC habitats s.l. (Guidastri et al, 1983;Tursi et al, 2004;Remia and Taviani, 2005;Toscano and Raspini, 2005;Rosso et al, 2010;Trincardi et al, 2010;Taviani et al, 2011b;Negri and Corselli, 2016).…”