Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T16:04:16.824Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

First record of the Indo-Pacific sponge genus Rhaphidhistia (Demospongiae, Hadromerida, Trachycladidae) from the Caribbean Sea, with description of a new species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2013

Christian M. Díaz  and
Sven Zea
Christian M. Díaz*
Affiliation:
Museo de Historia Natural Marina de Colombia, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras — INVEMAR, Calle 25#2-55, Rodadero, Santa Marta, Colombia
Sven Zea
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios en Ciencias del Mar — CECIMAR, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Caribe, c/o INVEMAR, Calle 25#2-55, Rodadero, Santa Marta, Colombia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: C.M. Díaz, Calle 25 No. 2-55, Playa Salguero, Santa Marto D.T.C.H., Colombia email: christian.diaz@invemar.org.co
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Exploration of continental shelves may produce unexpected faunal records. In shelf waters of La Guajira peninsula, Colombia, in the northern tip of South America, southern Caribbean Sea, we found a new species of Rhaphidhistia (Demospongiae, Hadromerida, Trachycladidae) a genus previously thought to be restricted to the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Rhaphidhistia guajiraensis sp. nov. is thickly encrusting, agglutinating bottom debris; it possesses asymmetric oxea as megascleres (465–757 μm by 6.3–17.5 μm) and spiraster-like spinispirae (15–37 μm by 2–5 μm). It is closely similar to the type species of the genus, R. spectabilis Carter, 1879, both standing apart from a third species, R. mirabilis (Dendy, 1924), thus conforming a natural group whose taxonomic placement needs to be reassessed. There are numerous cases of sponge genera with sister species in the Indo-Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, possibly split since the Tethys Sea breakup; owing to their restricted or deep distribution, they are just starting to be discovered.

Keywords

Poriferaexpanded distributionAtlantic speciesColombian CaribbeanLa Guajira
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 94 , Issue 2 , March 2014 , pp. 255 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Boury-Esnault, N. and Rützler, K. (1997) Thesaurus of sponge morphology. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 596, 1–55.Google Scholar
Carter, H.J. (1879) Contributions to our knowledge of the Spongida. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 5, iii, 284–304, 343–360, pls XXV–XXVII.Google Scholar
Diaz, C.M. and Zea, S. (2008) Distribución de esponjas sobre la plataforma continental de La Guajira, Caribe colombiano. Bulletin of Marine and Coastal Research 37, 27–43.Google Scholar
Dendy, A. (1924) Porifera. Part I. Non-Antarctic sponges. Natural history report. British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, 1910 (Zoology) 6, 269–392, pls I–XV.Google Scholar
Fernandez, J.C.C., Peixinho, S. and Hajdu, E. (2012) Phylogeny and an integrated biogeography of Acanthotetilla Burton, 1959 (Demospongiae: Spirophorida: Tetillidae): two-way traffic on the peri-African track. Zootaxa 3402, 1–23.Google Scholar
Hajdu, E. and Desqueyroux-Faúndez, R. (2008) A reassessment of the phylogeny and biogeography of Rhabderemia Topsent, 1890 (Rhabderemiidae, Poecilosclerida, Demospongiae). Reveu Suisse de Zoologie 115, 377–395.Google Scholar
Hooper, J.N.A. and Van Soest, R.W.M. (2002) Family Trachycladidae Hallmann, 1917. In Hooper, J.N.A. and Van Soest, R.W.M. (eds) Systema Porifera. Guide to the classification of sponges. I. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 268–274.Google Scholar
Morrow, C.C., Picton, B.E., Erpenbeck, D., Boury-Esnault, N., Maggs, C.A. and Allcock, A.L. (2012) Congruence between nuclear and mitochondrial genes in Demospongiae: a new hypothesis for relationships within the G4 clade (Porifera: Demospongiae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 62, 174–190.Google Scholar
Nichols, S. and Barnes, P. (2005) A molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of the marine sponge genus Placospongia (Phylum Porifera) indicate low dispersal capabilities and widespread crypsis. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 323, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parra-Velandia, F. (2011) Escenarios de especiación de organismos sésiles en el mar Caribe: el género Agelas (Porifera: Demospongiae), un caso de alta diversidad en el área. PhD thesis. Universidad Nacional de Colombia–INVEMAR.Google Scholar
Rützler, K. (2002) Family Clionaidae D'Orbigny, 1851. In Hooper, J.N.A. & Van Soest, R.W.M. (eds) Systema Porifera. A guide to the classification of sponges. I. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 173–185.Google Scholar
Van Soest, R.W.M., Hooper, J.N.A. and Hiemstra, F. (1991) Taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of the marine sponge genus Acarnus (Porifera: Poecilosclerida). Beaufortia 42, 49–88.Google Scholar
Van Soest, R.W.M., Boury-Esnault, N., Vacelet, J., Dohrmann, M., Erpenbeck, D., De Voogd, N.J., Santodomingo, N., Vanhoorne, B., Kelly, M. and Hooper, J.N. (2012) Global diversity of sponges (Porifera). PLoS ONE 7(4), e35105.Google Scholar
Van Soest, R.W.M., Boury-Esnault, N., Hooper, J.N.A., Rützler, K., de Voogd, N.J., Alvarez de Glasby, B., Hajdu, E., Pisera, A.B., Manconi, R., Schoenberg, C., Janussen, D., Tabachnick, K.R., Klautau, M., Picto, B., Kelly, M., Vacelet, J., Dohrmann, M. and Cristina Díaz, M. (2013) World Porifera Database. Available at: http://www.marinespecies.org/porifera on 2013-01-18.Google Scholar
Wiedenmayer, F. (1977) Shallow-water sponges of the western Bahamas. Experientia Supplementum 28, 1–287, pl. 43.Google Scholar
Zea, S. (1987) Esponjas del Caribe Colombiano. Catalogo Científico, Bogotá, 286 pp.Google Scholar
Zea, S. (1998) Estado actual del conocimiento en sistemática de esponjas marinas (Porifera) del Caribe colombiano. Boletin Ecotrópica 33, 43–59.Google Scholar