Publication Date:
2024-05-31
Description:
n the deep ocean, whale falls (deceased whales that sink to the seafloor) act as a boost of
productivity in this otherwise generally food-limited setting, nourishing organisms from sharks to microbes
during the various stages of their decomposition. Annelid worms are habitual colonizers of whale falls, with
new species regularly reported from these settings and their systematics helping to resolve biogeographic
patterns among deep-sea organic fall environments. During a 2017 expedition of the Australian research
vessel RV Investigator to sample bathyal to abyssal communities off Australia’s east coast, a natural
whale fall was opportunistically trawled at ~1000 m depth. In this study, we provide detailed taxonomic
descriptions of the annelids associated with this whale-fall community, using both morphological and
molecular techniques. From this material we describe nine new species from five families (Dorvilleidae:
Ophryotrocha dahlgreni sp. nov. Ophryotrocha hanneloreae sp. nov., Ophryotrocha ravarae sp. nov.;
Hesionidae: Vrijenhoekia timoharai sp. nov.; Nereididae: Neanthes adriangloveri sp. nov., Neanthes
visicete sp. nov.; Orbiniidae: Orbiniella jamesi sp. nov.), including two belonging to the bone-eating
genus Osedax (Siboglinidae: Osedax waadjum sp. nov., Osedax byronbayensis sp. nov.) that are the first
to be described from Australian waters. We further provide systematic accounts for 10 taxa within the
Ampharetidae, Amphinomidae, Microphthalmidae, Nereididae, Orbiniidae, Phyllodocidae, Protodrilidae,
Sphaerodoridae and Phascolosomatidae. Our investigations uncover unique occurrences and for the first
time enable the evaluation of biogeographic links between Australian whale falls and others in the western
Pacific as well as worldwide.
Keywords:
polychaete
;
chemosynthesis
;
organic fall
;
bathyal
;
Bathymodiolinae
;
Pacific Ocean
Repository Name:
National Museum of Natural History, Netherlands
Type:
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Format:
application/pdf
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