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Discovery of a new species of Leptogorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857 (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Gorgoniidae) from eastern tropical Pacific mesophotic reefs

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Abstract

The large gorgonian genus Leptogorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857 is abundant and widely distributed along coastlines and around oceanic islands in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, where it comprises 31 species with a wide bathymetric distribution. Material of Leptogorgia dictynna sp. nov. was collected at mesophotic reefs bordering marine protected areas off Pacific Costa Rica and Panamá. The species is characterised by a conspicuous, irregularly pinnate branching pattern; almost flat polyp-mounds with a lateral, biserial distribution on the branches; coenenchymal sclerites mostly long and thin spindles, up to 0.17 mm in length; and white colony and sclerites. The finding of this new species confirmed the biodiversity hot spot status of the protected areas where it was sampled and the need to increase their protection. Herein, the new species is described, and it is compared with other members of the genus in the Eastern Tropical Pacific from both a morphological and a molecular point of view.

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Acknowledgements

Our gratitude to Bert Hoeksema and anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments that improved our publication. Our appreciation to Dennis Opresko for his review and remarks on morphological characters and Stephen Cairns for revising a previous version of the manuscript. We thank Alex Rodríguez, Luis Solís, and Andrea Moya (UCR) for their contribution in this study. We thank the Servicio Nacional de Áreas Protegidas de Costa Rica for allowing our research at the Área de Conservación Osa and Instituto Costarricense de Pesca y Acuicultura. This research was conducted under the permits ACOSA-INV-010-19-SINAC, ACOSA-PI-PC-026-19, and AJDIP/342-2017. We thank Ross Robertson, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, for collecting the samples from Panamá. Our appreciation to Pristine Seas, National Geographic Society, Washington DC, USA, for making this project possible, to the crew of the submersible DeepSee and M/V Argo (UnderSea Hunter Group), and to Osa Conservation, Golfito, Costa Rica.

Funding

The expedition was funded by Pristine Seas, National Geographic. Vicerrectoría de Investigación, Universidad de Costa Rica (projects B5738, B6773 and B5159), and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute partially funded the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Museo de Zoología, Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, P.O. Box 11501-2060, San José, Costa Rica

    Odalisca Breedy

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0843-03092, Panama, Republic of Panama

    Odalisca Breedy & Hector M. Guzman

  3. Centro de Investigación en Estructuras Microscópicas, Universidad de Costa Rica, P.O. Box 11501-2060, San José, Costa Rica

    Odalisca Breedy & Catalina Murillo-Cruz

  4. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Geobiology & Paleontology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Richard-Wagner-Str. 10, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Sergio Vargas

Authors
  1. Odalisca Breedy
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  2. Hector M. Guzman
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  3. Catalina Murillo-Cruz
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  4. Sergio Vargas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Odalisca Breedy.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Sampling and field studies

All necessary permits for sampling and observational field studies have been obtained by the authors from the competent authorities and are mentioned in the acknowledgements, if applicable. The study is compliant with CBD and Nagoya protocols.

Data availability

Genetic sequence data generated in this study were deposited in GenBank with Accession Numbers MZ322102 and MZ320325. All other data analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files. The specimens analysed in this study are deposited in public repositories.

Author contribution

 OB conceived and designed the research, collected specimens, made morphological analyses, taxonomic interpretation, and wrote the article. HMG facilitated samples from Panamá and wrote the article. CMC made the molecular analyses and the interpretation and wrote the article. SV made the phylogenetic analyses and interpretation, analysed taxonomic data, and wrote the article. All authors have revised and agreed to the submitted version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Communicated by B.W. Hoeksema

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This article is registered in ZooBank under http://zoobank.org/9DF61046-7C58-4ECB-B746-D735ED39A301

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Breedy, O., Guzman, H.M., Murillo-Cruz, C. et al. Discovery of a new species of Leptogorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857 (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Gorgoniidae) from eastern tropical Pacific mesophotic reefs. Mar. Biodivers. 51, 95 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-021-01232-6

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