Studies on the cheilostome bryozoan fauna of the Aegean island of Chios

Summary

Collections of cheilostome Bryozoans from shallow water communities around Chios yielded 101 species. Of these, 15 are rare or little known species and eight are reported from the Mediterranean for the first time. Four new species are described.

The Bryozoan benthos of the eastern Mediterranean differs in several ways from that of the western basin. In particular, a high proportion of endemic species was noted, some of which are restricted to the eastern Mediterranean. Decreased proportions of Atlantic species may be explained either by the recent immigration of such species into the Mediterranean as a whole or by the existence of barriers to migration between the east and west basins of the sea. No firm evidence of the existence of Tethyan relics is found, but the occurrence of a number of species on the West African coast, in the Mediterranean and throughout the Indo-West-Pacific suggests very ancient distribution patterns.

Notes on relative abundance, and utilization of different substrata are included.