A new deep-sea pennatulacean (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Chunellidae) from the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (NE Atlantic)

• Published in: Helgoland Marine Research
• Main Authors: López-González, Pablo J., Williams, Gary C.
• Other Authors: Biodiversidad y Ecología de Invertebrados Marinos, Departamento de Fisiología y Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology, California Academy of Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2010
• Subjects: North Atlantic; Deep sea; New species; Pennatulacea; Octocoral
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00637077; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00637077/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00637077/file/PEER_stage2_10.1007%252Fs10152-010-0224-1.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10152-010-0224-1

International audience During the BENGAL cruises, an important collection of deep-sea benthic organisms was sampled. Among the pennatulacean colonies, a previously undescribed species of chunellid was collected. That material is here described as the type species of a new genus, gen. nov. The new genus and species are described based on material collected in the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (NE Atlantic), 4,839-4,847 m in depth. This is the first time that a chunellid is reported from the Atlantic Ocean. The new genus is compared with the other genera in the family, and some phylogenetic remarks about the families Chunellidae and Umbellulidae are also provided.