Porifera collection of the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA), with an updated checklist from Terra Nova Bay (Ross Sea)

This new dataset presents occurrence data for Porifera collected in the Ross Sea, mainly in the Terra Nova Bay area, and curated at the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, section of Genoa). Specimens were collected in 331 different sampling stations at depths ranging from 17 to 1,100 meters in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ZooKeys
Main Authors: Claudio Ghiglione, Maria Chiara Alvaro, Matteo Cecchetto, Simonepietro Canese, Rachel Downey, Alice Guzzi, Claudio Mazzoli, Paola Piazza, Hans Tore Rapp, Antonio SarĂ , Stefano Schiaparelli
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Pensoft Publishers 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.758.23485
https://doaj.org/article/03c349b386214730bee14c0965a57540
Description
Summary:This new dataset presents occurrence data for Porifera collected in the Ross Sea, mainly in the Terra Nova Bay area, and curated at the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, section of Genoa). Specimens were collected in 331 different sampling stations at depths ranging from 17 to 1,100 meters in the framework of 17 different Italian Antarctic expeditions funded by the Italian National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA). A total of 807 specimens, belonging to 144 morphospecies (i.e., 95 taxa identified at species level and 49 classified at least at the genus level) is included in the dataset. Nearly half (45%) of the species reported here correspond to species already known for Terra Nova Bay. Out of the remaining 55% previously unknown records, under a third (~29%) were classified at the species level, while over a quarter (~26%) were ascribed to the genus level only and these would require further study. All vouchers are permanently curated at the MNA and are available for study to the scientific community. A 3D model of an uncommon species from the Ross Sea, i.e. Tethyopsis brondstedi (Burton, 1929), is also presented and will be made available for outreach purposes.