The sands of time: rediscovery of the genus Neozoanthus (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia) and evolutionary aspects of sand incrustation in brachycnemic zoanthids

Reimer, James Davis; Hirose, Mamiko; Irei, Yuka; Obuchi, Masami; Sinniger, Frédéric

doi:10.1007/s00227-011-1624-8

Cited by 17 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…These results further demonstrate how ecological traits in Zoantharia previously considered to be important at higher taxonomic levels (genus, family) may evolve and change more rapidly than has generally been assumed. Similar results have been seen in the losses of sand incrustation (Reimer et al 2011a) and skeleton secretion (Sinniger et al 2013). Investigations on the relationships between phylogeny and habitats of Palythoa spp.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Descriptions of two azooxanthellate Palythoa species (Subclass Hexacorallia, Order Zoantharia) from the Ryukyu Archipelago, southern Japan

Irei¹,

Sinniger²,

Reimer³

2015

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Two new species of zoantharians (Hexacorallia, Zoantharia, Sphenopidae), Palythoa mizigama sp. n. and Palythoa umbrosa sp. n., are described from the Ryukyu Archipelago, southern Japan. Unlike almost all other known Palythoa spp., both species are azooxanthellate and inhabit low-light environments such as floors or sides of caves, crevasses, or hollows of shallow coral reefs. The two species were initially considered to be the same species from their similar habitat environments and highly similar morphological features. However, phylogenetic analyses of nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) ribosomal DNA, mitochondrial 16S ribosomal DNA, and cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences revealed that these two species have a genetically distant relationship within the genus Palythoa. Morphological characteristics, including polyp size, tentacle number, external/internal coloration, and types and sizes of cnidae were examined in this study. As a result, only tentacle coloration was found to be useful for the morphological distinction between the two species. Palythoa mizigama possesses white tentacles with black horizontal stripes while Palythoa umbrosa possesses white tentacles without any stripe patterns. Considering their distant phylogenetic relationship, it can be assumed that their unique yet similar morphological and ecological characteristics developed independently in each species as an example of parallel evolution.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Descriptions of two azooxanthellate Palythoa species (Subclass Hexacorallia, Order Zoantharia) from the Ryukyu Archipelago, southern Japan

Irei¹,

Sinniger²,

Reimer³

2015

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“…Although phylogenetic results showed Isaurus specimens as closely related to Neozoanthus specimens, these two genera are clearly different in morphology and do have phylogenetic differences as well [81].…”

Section: Journal Of Marine Biologymentioning

confidence: 84%

Species Diversity of Shallow Water Zoanthids (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) in Florida

Reimer

Foord

Irei

2012

Journal of Marine Biology

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Shallow water zooxanthellate zoanthids are a common component of the coral reef ecosystems of the Caribbean. Despite this, their species diversity remains poorly understood. In this study, collected Palythoa, Zoanthus, Isaurus, and Terrazoanthus specimens from the waters of Florida were phylogenetically examined to obtain a better understanding of zoanthid species diversity in the Caribbean. Surprisingly, the results from analyses utilizing three DNA markers (mitochondrial 16S ribosomal DNA, cytochrome oxidase subunit I, and the internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA) showed the presence of at least eleven species, of which up to four appear undescribed. Additionally, the presence of the genus Terrazoanthus in the Caribbean was confirmed for the first time. Attempts to match phylogenetic species or clades with original literature were hampered by vague and short original descriptions, and it is clear that for Atlantic Palythoa and Zoanthus species an in-depth and multidisciplinary investigation is needed to reconcile recent phylogenetic results such as in this study with traditional taxonomy. Furthermore, most shallow water zoanthid species from Florida were observed to have close, sister-species relationships with previously investigated species in the Pacific Ocean. These results indicate that many brachycnemic zoanthid species likely had a Caribbean-Pacific distribution until the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. However, due to inadvertent redescriptions, overall species diversity in these two common genera is likely much lower than literature indicates.

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“…Species of this genus have been reported from Madagascar (Herberts 1972), southern Japan (Reimer et al 2011a, 2012a, 2013b), and the southern Great Barrier Reef (Reimer et al 2011a, 2012a). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Palythoa heliodiscus ), very few records of zoantharians had previously been formally reported from the CIP/Coral Triangle region. Given these reasons, we followed recent research (Burnett et al 1994, 1995, 1997, Reimer et al 2006a, 2007b, Sinniger 2006, Sinniger et al 2010, Reimer and Todd 2009, Reimer 2010, Reimer et al 2011a, Fujii and Reimer 2011) from neighboring regions and used Zoanthus and Palythoa species names for which numerous references, molecular data and/or accurate descriptions were available, unless specimens and/or images clearly did not match with previously published information.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent work on zoantharians has focused on many regions of the Indo-Pacific, including Japan (Reimer 2010), Singapore (Reimer and Todd 2009), New Caledonia (Sinniger 2006), the Great Barrier Reef (Burnett et al 1997, Reimer et al 2011a) and Palau (Reimer et al 2014a). In the center between these regions lies the central Indo-Pacific “Coral Triangle” (Hoeksema 2007), including parts or all of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, and Timor Leste.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shallow-water zoantharians (Cnidaria, Hexacorallia) from the Central Indo-Pacific

Reimer

Poliseno

Hoeksema

2014

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Despite the Central Indo-Pacific (CIP) and the Indonesian Archipelago being a well-known region of coral reef biodiversity, particularly in the ‘Coral Triangle’, little published information is available on its zoantharians (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia: Zoantharia). In order to provide a basis for future research on the Indo-Pacific zoantharian fauna and facilitate comparisons between more well-studied regions such as Japan and the Great Barrier Reef, this report deals with CIP zoantharian specimens in the Naturalis collection in Leiden, the Netherlands; 106 specimens were placed into 24 morpho-species and were supplemented with 88 in situ photographic records from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. At least nine morpho-species are likely to be undescribed species, indicating that the region needs more research in order to properly understand zoantharian diversity within the CIP. The Naturalis’ zoantharian specimens are listed by species, as well as all relevant collection information, and in situ images are provided to aid in future studies on zoantharians in the CIP.

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The sands of time: rediscovery of the genus Neozoanthus (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia) and evolutionary aspects of sand incrustation in brachycnemic zoanthids

Cited by 17 publications

References 17 publications

Descriptions of two azooxanthellate Palythoa species (Subclass Hexacorallia, Order Zoantharia) from the Ryukyu Archipelago, southern Japan

Descriptions of two azooxanthellate Palythoa species (Subclass Hexacorallia, Order Zoantharia) from the Ryukyu Archipelago, southern Japan

Species Diversity of Shallow Water Zoanthids (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) in Florida

Shallow-water zoantharians (Cnidaria, Hexacorallia) from the Central Indo-Pacific

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