Die Gorgonaria des östlichen Nordatlantik und des Mittelmeeres, I. Die Familie Ellisellidae (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) : Auswertung der "Atlantischen Kuppenfahrten 1967" von F.S. "Meteor"

• Main Author: Grasshoff, Manfred
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: German
• Published: Bornträger 1972
• Subjects: Josephine; Meteor Seamount; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/56773/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/56773/1/Grasshoff_M_1972_02.pdf

1. The three species of the Gorgonarian family Ellisellidae occurring in the eastern North Atlantic and the Mediterranean are described and compared with similar western Atlantic forms. 2. Material examined: a) the Gorgonarians obtained during the cruises of R.V. "Meteor" (Octocorallia now in the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt am Main), b) the Gorgonarians of the museums in Amsterdam, Leiden, London, Monaco and Paris. These collections contain the original material of classical expeditions and of the chief works on the east Atlantic and Mediterranean Gorgonarian fauna (WRIGHT, STUDER, KÜKENTHAL, THOMSON, STIASNY). 3. Ellisella paraplexauroides is found only in the African shelf, Ellisella jlagellttm on the seamounts and near the islands, Nicella granifera in both regions. 4. Ellisella flagellum is the most frequent species of the big benthic forms living on the plateaus of the Great Meteor Seamount and the Josephine Seamount. 5. The three species are quite distinct in their morphological characters. For each of these three east Atlantic species there can be found a similar species in the west. The colonies are similar in form but differ slightly in the structure of spicules. Ellisella flagellum / E. barbadensis, Ellisella paraplexauroides/ E. elongata and Nicella granifera/ N. guadalupensis can be spoken of as east-west-atlantic pairs. (This does not exclude that there are probably morphologically similar species in the Indo-Pacific). 6. Bach species has several types of spicules. The percentage of each spicule type varies from colony to colony, at least in Ellisella flagellum and in Nicella granifera. 7. The population of Ellisella jlagellttm of the Josephine Seamount and that of the Great Meteor Seamount show differences in coloration, average size of the colonies and significant differences in the average percentage of some spicule types.