Ophiura ljungmani

• Main Authors: O'Hara, Timothy D., Thuy, Ben
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Echinodermata; Ophiuroidea; Ophiurida; Ophiuridae; Ophiura; Ophiura ljungmani; Arctic; New Zealand; Paterson
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6411764; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6411764

Ophiura ljungmani (Lyman, 1878b) Fig. 3A–B Ophioglypha ljungmani Lyman, 1878b: 71–72, pl. 3(77). Ophiura ljungmani.— Martynov & Litvinova 2008: 80, fig. 1d.— Olbers et al. 2019: 87–88, fig. 64–65.— Stöhr & O’Hara 2021: 514–516, fig. 2f–h. Ophiura (Ophiura) ljungmani.— Paterson 1985: 118–120 fig. 44.— Alva & Vadon 1989: 841, fig. 8a–b. Material examined. MD 50 CP193, MNHN IE.2009.1623 (1). Distribution. Arctic (310–2913 m), NW Atlantic (? 68–4707 m), NE Atlantic (789–4150 m), W Atlantic (? 46– 1965 m), E Atlantic (425–2550 m), S Africa (2688–3906 m). SPA (2800–3075 m). Remarks. There is a lower bathyal species complex with one described species (O. ljungmani) in the North and South Atlantic (101–4700 m), including South Africa (2688–3906 m, Olbers et al. 2019), a second (O. spinicantha McKnight, 2003) off SE Australia, the Tasman Sea, and New Zealand (1650–4130 m), and a third (O. bathybia H.L. Clark, 1911) from Japan (Stöhr & O’Hara 2021). The first two species were separated by McKnight (2003) by the number of arm spines (two in O. spinicantha and three in O. ljungmani) but this depends on the definition of the elongated outer tentacle scale which is interpreted as a lower arm spine on O. ljungmani but as a tentacle scale by McKnight (2003). Perhaps the two species can be separated by the length of the upper arm spine, which is subequal to lower spines on O. spinicantha but two times as long in O. ljungmani. The upper arm spine is notably longer on the 9.5 mm dd MD 50 specimen, hence the identification as O. ljungmani. Both O. spinicantha and O. ljungmani can have long sparse disc spines and an opposing arm comb on the arm plates. .continued on the next page TABLE 1. (Continued) .continued on the next page TABLE 1. (Continued) The massive bathymetric range reported for O. ljungmani (e.g., Paterson 1985) is suspect. Some of the shallowest Western Atlantic records are actually O. acervata (Lyman, 1869) or O. fallax Cherbonnier, 1959, which also have eland-horn shaped radial shields. Re-examination ...