Diversity, Distribution and Phylogeny of Hesionidae (Annelida) Colonizing Whale Falls: New Species of Sirsoe and Connections Between Ocean Basins

Whale falls are important environments contributing to biodiversity, connectivity and evolutionary novelty in deep-sea ecosystem. Notwithstanding, most of this knowledge is based in studies from NE Pacific basin. Interestingly, the only known natural whale fall on the SW Atlantic has faunal composition affinities with carcasses from other deep-ocean basins. In this carcass, annelid worms belonging to Hesionidae are abundant and species-rich, and include some shared species with NE Pacific Ocean. Here we evaluate the diversity of Hesionidae on the SW Atlantic using new information of implanted whale bones and explore whether some species have interbasin distribution or if they represent cryptic species in different basins. We described, using morphological and molecular data, a total of 10 new hesionid species and report of a new lineage Sirsoe ‘BioSuOr,’ not formally described herein. Two hesionids found exclusively in deep-sea chemosynthetic environments, Sirsoe Pleijel (1998) and Vrijenhoekia Pleijel et al. (2008), are primarily distinguished from each other by the presence of a median antenna on the former and its absence on the latter. However, our analyses showed that Vrijenhoekia should be synonymized with Sirsoe and for this reason we emended the diagnosis of Sirsoe. We also emphasized the presence of Sirsoe balaenophila comb. nov. and S. sirikos in SW Atlantic whale falls confirming their interbasin distribution. Moreover, COI and 16S rDNA data reveal that S. balaenophila comb. nov. also comprises cryptic species on the SW Atlantic (S. pirapuan sp. nov. and S. ypupiara sp. nov) and perhaps also in the Pacific Ocean (herein named as S. balaenophila lineage-2). The new species, S. maximiano, is shared between whale falls from SW Atlantic and vent sites from Mid-Cayman Spreading Center. Our data adds to the growing literature showing species are shared between deep ocean basins and among cognate deep-sea environments.

Keyword(s)

deep sea, biodiversity, cryptic species, biogeography, connectivity

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FIGURE S1 | Phylogenetic relationship of Sirsoe based on maximum likelihood (ML) analysis of: (A) COI and (B) 16S datasets. Values before slash are bootstrap supports of ML (only >50%) and after are..
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TABLE S1 | Locality, depth and GenBank accession number of sequences employed in this study.
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TABLE S2 | Average of uncorrected genetic distance (p-distance) among Sirsoe species. Values above the diagonal are interspecific 16S distance and ...
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TABLE S3 | List of valid Sirsoe species up to date, including type locality, other occurrences, depth range (in meters) and type of chemosynthetic-based ecosystem used by each species.
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Corrigendum
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How to cite
Shimabukuro Mauricio, Carrerette Orlemir, Alfaro-Lucas Joan Manel, Rizzo Alexandra Elaine, Halanych Kenneth M., Sumida Paulo Yukio Gomes (2019). Diversity, Distribution and Phylogeny of Hesionidae (Annelida) Colonizing Whale Falls: New Species of Sirsoe and Connections Between Ocean Basins. Frontiers In Marine Science. 6 (478). 26p.. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00478, https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00509/62081/

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