Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Five Species Including Three New Species of Golden Gorgonians (Cnidaria: Octocorallia) from Seamounts in the Western Pacific.

ABSTRACT: Members of genus Iridogorgia Verrill, 1883 are the typical deep-sea megabenthos with only seven species reported. Based on an integrated morphological-molecular approach, eight sampled specimens of Iridogorgia from seamounts in the tropical Western Pacific are identified as three new species, and two known species I. magnispiralis Watling, 2007 and I. densispicula Xu, Zhan, Li and Xu, 2020. Iridogorgia flexilis sp. nov. is unique in having a very broad polyp body base with stout and thick scales. Iridogorgia densispiralis sp. nov. can be distinguished by rods present in both polyps and coenenchyme, and I. verrucosa sp. nov. is characterized by having numerous verrucae in coenenchyme and irregular spindles and scales in the polyp body wall. Phylogenetic analysis based on the nuclear 28S rDN

SUBMITTER: Xu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8301098 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature