The black coral fauna (Cnidaria: Antipatharia) of Bermuda with new records

Abstract

The black coral fauna of Bermudan waters is poorly known, in large part due to the logistical challenges of surveying deepwater (>50 m) environments where most species occur. In 2016, the Nekton Expedition sought to survey the deep-water biodiversity around Bermuda using manned submersibles and mixed-gas technical SCUBA. A total of 28 black coral specimens were collected, and these were examined based on skeletal spine morphology, polyp morphology, colony branching pattern and in situ photographs. The specimens were assigned to seven species in three families and four genera, including (1) Antipathes atlantica Gray, 1857, (2) Antipathes furcata Gray, 1857, (3) Stichopathes pourtalesi Brook, 1889, (4) Stichopathes sp., (5) Distichopathes filix (Pourtales, 1867), (6) Tanacetipathes hirta (Gray, 1857), and (7) Tanacetipathes tanacetum (Pourtales, 1867). Of these, three species (Stichopathes sp., S. pourtalesi, and D. filix), one genus (Distichopathes) and one family (Aphanipathidae) are reported from Bermudan waters for the first time, thereby increasing the known black coral diversity of Bermuda to twelve species, five genera and four families. The diagnostic characters of the taxa identified as part of this study are illustrated and described.

Marine Skeletal Biopolymers and Proteins, and Their Biomedical Application

“…Despite this, all these species are characterized as having exclusively colonial habitus, with generally slow growth rates depending on the environment and high longevity, varying from decades to millennia [68][69][70][71][72]. Antipatharian colonies have various morphologies, either unbranched in the form of a whip or branched into a bush or a fan, with maximum sizes among species ranging from a few centimeters to many meters [73,74]. Moreover, to ensure stiffness and high mechanical strength, which are necessary to withstand high hydrostatic pressure and turbulent oceanic currents, the skeletons of antipatharians (Figure 1) usually have a layered scleroproteinaceous structure, strengthened by an inner chitinous scaffold [33,75].…”

Electrochemical Approach for Isolation of Chitin from the Skeleton of the Black Coral Cirrhipathes sp. (Antipatharia)

“…Despite this, all these species are characterized as having exclusively colonial habitus, with generally slow growth rates depending on the environment and high longevity, varying from decades to millennia [68][69][70][71][72]. Antipatharian colonies have various morphologies, either unbranched in the form of a whip or branched into a bush or a fan, with maximum sizes among species ranging from a few centimeters to many meters [73,74]. Moreover, to ensure stiffness and high mechanical strength, which are necessary to withstand high hydrostatic pressure and turbulent oceanic currents, the skeletons of antipatharians (Figure 1) usually have a layered scleroproteinaceous structure, strengthened by an inner chitinous scaffold [33,75].…”

Gnathia bermudensis (Crustacea, Isopoda, Gnathiidae), a new species from the mesophotic reefs of Bermuda, with a key to Gnathia from the Greater Caribbean biogeographic region

“…It is situated on the western side of the Sargasso Sea (high salinity, high temperatures and high biodiversity), and has the most northern coral reef system in the world. As part of the Nekton Foundation/XL-Catlin Deep-Ocean Survey – Mission 1 (www.nektonmission.org), fish (Stefanoudis et al 2019a), zooplankton (Stefanoudis et al 2019b), black corals (Wagner and Shuler 2017), macroalgae (Schneider et al 2018, 2019) and other benthic communities (NVS pers. obs.)…”