First account on the diversity ofOphryotrocha(Annelida, Dorvilleidae) from a mammal-fall in the deep-Atlantic Ocean with the description of three new species

Abstract

Annelids of the genus Ophryotrocha are globally distributed in a wide variety of organically enriched habitats. Although mostly known from shallow water, the expansion of deep-sea research revealed several new Ophryotrocha species mainly associated with organic-falls, in particular with cetacean carcasses, or whale-falls. Despite the great deal of interest that fauna associated with whale-falls have attracted, very little is known about this fauna in the deep-Atlantic Ocean. Hereby we analyse, for the first time, the Ophryotrocha assemblage associated with a mammal-fall in this region of the world's ocean. Specimens were collected from the bones of degrading cow carcasses deployed in the Set ubal canyon at approximately 1000 m depth. Using morphological characters and phylogenetic analyses based on the nuclear gene H3 performed on 31 Ophryotrocha species, we report the presence of five different species, we describe three new species and extend the distribution of O. scutella. Ophryotrocha scutella was previously known from a shallow-water whale-fall and organically enriched sediments beneath a fish farm off Scandinavia and is the first species to be reported from organic-falls in both shallow and deep waters. The presence of five congeners emphasize the importance of the genus Ophryotrocha in the degradation of organic matter in the deep-sea. Our results substantially increase the number of deep Atlantic species in the genus Ophryotrocha and highlight the remarkable unknown diversity and biogeographic patterns hidden behind unstudied deep-sea habitats.http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A12699DA-E580-4782-941A-48D7B31E4DAE

Cryptic species and colonization processes in Ophryotrocha (Annelida, Dorvilleidae) inhabiting vertebrate remains in the shallow‐water Mediterranean

“…Species co-occurrence is not uncommon in Ophryotrocha and has been previously reported in different studies using mammal bones from a range of geographic areas (e.g. Wiklund et al 2009aWiklund et al ,2012Taboada et al 2013;Ravara et al 2015). Just focusing on the O. puerilis species complex uncovered here, two species (O. puerilis sensu stricto and O. puerilis 'Shallow') appear to be syntopic sensu Rivas (1964) as they occur in the same locality and share the same habitat, while O. puerilis 'Deep' may be considered as a parapatric species with respect to the other two as its distribution does not appear to significantly overlap although it is immediately adjacent to the distribution of the shallower species.…”

“…; Ravara et al . ). Just focusing on the O. puerilis species complex uncovered here, two species ( O. puerilis sensu stricto and O. puerilis ‘Shallow’) appear to be syntopic sensu Rivas () as they occur in the same locality and share the same habitat, while O. puerilis ‘Deep’ may be considered as a parapatric species with respect to the other two as its distribution does not appear to significantly overlap although it is immediately adjacent to the distribution of the shallower species.…”

“…, ), although this contrasts with the recently reported wide bathymetric range up to 1000 m for Ophryotrocha scutellus (Wiklund, Glover & Dahlgren, 2009; Ravara et al . ). Importantly, the co‐occurrence of O. puerilis ‘Shallow’ and O. puerilis sensu stricto in the same bones challenges previous identifications of O. puerilis in the shallow‐water Mediterranean.…”

A new species of Ophryotrocha (Annelida, Eunicida, Dorvilleidae) from hydrothermal vents on the Southwest Indian Ridge

“…These are distributed world-wide in diversified habitats from shallow water to deep-sea. A number of species in this genus are opportunistic or stress tolerant, can reach high abundance in reducing environments, such as hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, as well as whale and wood fall ecosystems (Desbruyères et al 2006, Levin et al 2003, Wiklund et al 2009, Wiklund et al 2012, Taboada et al 2013, Salvo et al 2014, Ravara et al 2015). To date five Ophryotrocha species: O. akessoni Blake, 1985, O. fabriae Paxton & Morineaux, 2009, O. globopalpata Blake & Hilbig, 1990, O. platykephale Blake, 1985, and O. wubaolingi Miura, 1997 have been reported from hydrothermal vents (Blake 1985, Blake and Hilbig 1990, Miura 1997, Paxton and Morineaux 2009).…”

A review of the ecological affinities of marine organic microfossils from a Holocene record offshore of Adélie Land (East Antarctica)

“…Taxonomy on the species level is not possible on the exoskeleton parts found in Hole U1357B because these are fragmentary. However, using the online database "Diversity and Geographic Distribution of Marine Planktonic Copepods" of Razouls et al (2005Razouls et al ( -2017 we have been able to identify several copepod exoskeleton parts. In particular, mandibular gnathobases can potentially provide information on the different copepod taxa from which we find the remains in the samples of Hole U1357B.…”