Just Accepted

This article has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication. It is in production and has not been edited, so may differ from the final published form.

A new genus of bamboo coral (Octocorallia: Scleralcyonacea: Keratoisididae) from the Whittard Canyon, Ireland, Northeast Atlantic

Declan Morrissey , A. Louise Allcock, Andrea Quattrini

Abstract

Deep-sea corals are rarely identified to species due to a lack of taxonomic expertise and paucity of sampling. Herein we describe a new genus from the family Keratoisididae collected from the Northeast Atlantic. Using both nuclear (2010 conserved element loci) and complete mitogenome phylogenies, we found this genus to be closely related to the genera Dokidisis and Jasonisis. In the nuclear phylogeny, each genus occupied a distinct well-supported clade. All three genera lack thorned- or double-star sclerites in the pharynx; instead they have flattened rods, a potential unifying feature of Watling et al.’s (2022) keratoisidid group J3. The newly described genus Explorisis gen. nov. has a unique sclerome including spindles and tapered rods that differentiates it from its sister genera. Explorisis katharina sp. nov. is characterised by volcano to cylindrical shaped polyps, striated rods and spindles in the polyp body, and elongated flattened rods in the coenenchyme while Explorisis poppyae sp. nov. has heavily granulated spindles and rods in both the polyp body and coenenchyme. Genetic variation within the mitogenomes across both Explorisis gen. nov. species is limited with mutations in just three of 14 protein coding regions. ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:141BD76E-8C83-43BE-8E1E-B8C53CD7CEF7

IS24021  Accepted 21 August 2024

© CSIRO 2024