Paralophaster gomo Mah & Fujita 2020, n. sp.

• Main Authors: Mah, Christopher L., Fujita, Toshihiko
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2020
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Echinodermata; Asteroidea; Valvatida; Solasteridae; Paralophaster; Paralophaster gomo; Antarc*; Antarctic; antarcticus
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3706293; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/03DC87ABFFD7022F17E81DB3FF79944C

Paralophaster gomo n. sp. Figure 3 A–E Etymology: Gomo is the Japanese word for “bristle” alluding to the highly spiny paxillae. Noun is held in apposition. Diagnosis. A species with stellate body (R/r=3.0), thick disk, arms arched, acute interradial arcs. Abactinal paxillae bearing a tuft of 5 to 50, mostly 20–40 hyaline spines in linear, transverse series. Tufts round to oval in outline. Marginal plates comparable in size, morphology with abactinal plates, each with 20–50 spinelets, forming a distinct actinolateral border. Actinal region composed of flattened, wide adambulacral plates oriented transversely relative to tube foot groove and separated by tissue. Furrow spines, 10–15 in a curved fan. Comments. Paralophaster gomo n. sp. differs sharply from the other known Paralophaster species in the possession of 20–40 (up to 50) glassy spinelets on abactinal and marginal paxillae and having 10 to 15 furrow spines and seven to nine subambulacral spines. Paralophaster hyalinus displays only 16–23 paxillar spinelets with three or four furrow spines and four or five subambulacral spines. A survey of the Antarctic Paralophaster spp. (A. M. Clark 1962) shows a comparable number of paxillar spinelets (30–40), but far fewer furrow spines (two or three) in P. antarcticus (Koehler 1912) with far fewer paxillar spinelets and furrow spines in P. godfroyi (Koehler 1912). Occurrence. Japan, Ogasawara Islands, Izu Islands, 133–211 m. Description. Body stellate (R/r=3.0), disk thick, strongly arched, arms round and trunk-like, oral surface flat. Interradial arcs acute (Fig. 3A). Abactinal skeleton reticulate but close-set, central regions with primarily single but a minority with two to four papular pores emerging through a translucent membrane framed by the skeletal bars (Fig. 3B). Papular regions largest proximally on disk becoming smaller distally along arms to such an extent that papular areas adjacent to arm terminus are tightly compressed and/or absent. In NMST E-11260 (R=1.2), skin is translucent proximally becoming ...