Benayahu, Y.; McFadden, C. S.; Shoham, E. (2017). Search for mesophotic octocorals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) and their phylogeny: I. A new sclerite-free genus from Eilat, northern Red Sea. ZooKeys. 680: 1-11.

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10.3897/zookeys.680.12727 [view]

Benayahu, Y.; McFadden, C. S.; Shoham, E.

2017

680: 1-11

Publication

https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/12727/

This communication describes a new octocoral, Altumia delicata gen. n. & sp. n. (Octocorallia: Clavulariidae), from mesophotic reefs of Eilat (northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea). This species lives on dead antipatharian colonies and on artificial substrates. It has been recorded from deeper than 60 m down to 140 m and is thus considered to be a lower mesophotic octocoral. It has no sclerites and features no symbiotic zooxanthellae. The new genus is compared to other known sclerite-free octocorals. Molecular phylogenetic analyses place it in a clade with members of families Clavulariidae and Acanthoaxiidae, and for now we assign it to the former, based on colony morphology. The polyphyletic family Clavulariidae is, however, in need of a thorough revision once the morphological distinctions among its phylogenetically distinct clades are better understood.

Red Sea

Molecular systematics, Molecular biology
Systematics, Taxonomy

Octocorallia

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