Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea, Gorgonocephalus Leach, 1815: first report of the genus for the Brazilian continental margin

The Gorgonocephalidae includes 38 genera, five of them reported for Brazilian waters. Gorgonocephalus chilensis has a wide distribution throughout Antartica and Subantartican regions and its northern limit was restricted to the coast of Uruguay. This work aims to report the first occurrence of the G...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Check List
Main Authors: Carlos Barboza, Fabricio Mendes, Andrea Dalben, Luiz Tommasi
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Pensoft Publishers 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.15560/6.2.289
https://doaj.org/article/39cdee2de4e946e98ddf827adc7b9165
Description
Summary:The Gorgonocephalidae includes 38 genera, five of them reported for Brazilian waters. Gorgonocephalus chilensis has a wide distribution throughout Antartica and Subantartican regions and its northern limit was restricted to the coast of Uruguay. This work aims to report the first occurrence of the Gorgonocephalus genus for the Brazilian continental margin and extend the northern limit of distribution of G. chilensis to the coast of Santa Catarina. Tolerance to a large temperature and bathimetric range are crucial to understand the distributions patterns of ophiuroids from the polar circle that also occur at southern South America.