Asteroid fauna of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge with description of a new species Hymenasterides mironovi sp. nov.

Abstract

Asteroids collected on the north part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge by the RV G.O. Sars in summer 2004, under the MAR-ECO programme, were studied. Asteroids were found at 17 stations, at depths ranging from 966 to 3509 m. The collection includes 32 species. One species of Hymenasterides is here described as new to science. This is the first record of the genus Hymenasterides Fisher, 1911a in the Atlantic Ocean. Previously the genus Hymenasterides included only one species, Hymenasterides zenognathus Fisher, 1911a, from the West Pacific. The new species differs from it by a larger number of paxillar spines (9–20 instead of five to seven) and by alternate adambulacral plates with one and two spines instead of one and three. An annotated check-list is given of the asteroids in the MAR-ECO collection.

Keywords:

• Asteroidea
• Hymenasterides
• MAR-ECO
• Mid-Atlantic Ridge
• North Atlantic

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgements

This study was made possible by Dr A.V. Gebruk (P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, Russia) who collected the asteroid material on the G.O. Sars MAR-ECO cruise. I wish to acknowledge Dr J. Kongsrud and Dr E. Willassen (Museum of Zoology, University of Bergen, Norway) for their help during my visit to the Museum. I am grateful to Dr A.N. Mironov (P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, Russia) for his help in identification of the porcellanasterid asteroids and remarks on some porcellanasterid species. I wish to thank Cynthia Ahearn (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA) for the loan of the holotype of Hymenasterides zenognathus Fisher, 1911. I also thank Dr A.J. Southward (Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, UK) and Dr Ch. Mah (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA) for their helpful comments and editing of English. Special thanks are due to the anonymous reviewers whose comments helped improved this paper. The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Project 05-05-65283, and also was an element of MAR-ECO, a field project under the Census of Marine Life programme.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark