Description of the sea pen Calibelemnon hinoenma sp. nov. from shallow waters in southern Japan
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Description of the sea pen Calibelemnon hinoenma sp. nov. from shallow waters in southern Japan Yuka Kushida 1
&
James Davis Reimer 1,2
Received: 25 August 2020 / Revised: 15 October 2020 / Accepted: 18 October 2020 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung 2020
Abstract Sea pen species of the genus Calibelemnon are important components of soft bottom communities. Here, we formally describe Calibelemnon hinoenma sp. nov. from shallow waters in Amami Oshima, Kagoshima in the Ryukyu Islands, via molecular and morphological observations and analyses. This species can be distinguished from its congeners by the presence of paired autozooids, siphonozooids aligned irregularly in one to three rows at the side of the rachis between polyps, and the red-brown rufous color of the oral disks. Phylogenetically, the new species is located in an Anthoptilum–Umbellula–Calibelemnon clade. Ancestral state reconstruction analyses suggest that Calibelemnon species may have undergone at least two habitat changes, from shallow to deep waters, followed by a return to shallow waters. In the Ryukyu Islands, there have been many recent discoveries of unique marine species, with this sea pen species being the latest. Keywords Adaptation . Depth . Ryukyu Islands . Subtropical
Introduction Octocorals are well-known inhabitants of many marine environments worldwide as most of them are conspicuous taxa (McFadden et al. 2010; Lau et al. 2019). Octocorals are diverse, and the subclass contains approximately 3500 species (Daly et al. 2007; McFadden et al. 2010; Williams and Cairns 2018); however, only 25% of the described species have been reported from shallow waters less than 50 m in depth (Pérez et al. 2016; Lau et al. 2019). The subclass Octocorallia Haeckel, 1866 includes three orders: Alcyonacea Lamouroux, 1812 (soft corals, sea fans), Helioporacea Bock, 1938 (blue corals), and Pennatulacea This article is registered in ZooBank under http://zoobank.org/ 762AF97C-B8F7-45E0-853A-9D41A6B127B8 Communicated by B. W. Hoeksema * Yuka Kushida [email protected] 1
Molecular Invertebrate Systematics and Ecology Laboratory, Graduate School of Engineering and Science, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
2
Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
Verrill, 1865 (sea pens). Sea pens are octocorals that generally live in marine sandy and muddy bottom environments, and are found from shallow to deep depths around the world (Williams 2011). Members of sea pens have important roles as ecosystem engineers in soft bottoms (Kenchington et al. 2014; Kushida et al. 2020b). Sea pens are unique animals as their polyps are always dimorphic or polymorphic, and among octocorals, only sea pens have primary oozooid polyps (Williams 2011; Williams et al. 2012). The oozooid includes a rachis, from which the secondary polyps arise, such as autozooids or siphonozooids, as well as the peduncle, which does not have any secondary polyps. Autozooids
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