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Springer, Polar Biology, 7(36), p. 1031-1045, 2013

DOI: 10.1007/s00300-013-1326-4

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Two new Antarctic Ophryotrocha (Annelida: Dorvilleidae) described from shallow-water whale bones

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Marine invertebrate fauna associated to whale remains has lately attracted a great deal of interest. However, very little is known about this fauna in the Southern Ocean, an area with high abundances of cetaceans. To investigate the Antarctic organisms associated to these substrates we conducted a study using whale bones in the shallow-waters of Deception Island (South Shetland Islands). In this paper we describe two new species of Ophryotrocha (O. orensanzi sp. nov. and O. clava sp. nov.) from a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) fresh caudal vertebra experimentally deployed for about a year, and from an unknown whale vertebra presumably dating back to the early 20th century whaling operations. Ophryotrocha clava sp. nov., found in relative high abundance in the fresh bone, is hypothesized to be an opportunistic species in the context of Antarctic shallow-water organically-enriched environments. Ophryotrocha orensanzi sp. nov. appears to be the same species as the unnamed Palpiphitime sp., near lobifera, formerly reported from a nearby area. Phylogenetic analyses based on the nuclear gene H3 and the mitochondrial genes COI and 16S, using MrBayes and Maximum Likelihood analyses, show that O. clava sp. nov. is close to Iphitime hartmanae and is included in the 'hartmanni' clade, while O. orensanzi sp. nov. falls in the 'lobifera' clade. Remarks about their feeding preferences and ecology are also given. Our findings seem to suggest that members of the genus Ophryotrocha are important components of organically-enriched Southern Ocean environments, as has been reported for this clade in other geographic areas.