A new co-authored paper published in Royal Society Open Science led by Hiromi Kayama Watanabe describes a new species of deep-sea stalked barnacle from Indian Ocean hydrothermal vents: Neolepas marisindica Watanabe, Chen & Chan in Watanabe et al., 2018. Furthermore, we also carried out phylogeographic investigation of deep-sea eolepadid stalked barnacles, leading to a better understanding of their evolution and biogeography. The paper is Open Access and available here: http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/4/172408
Abstract
Phylogeography of animals provides clues to processes governing their evolution and diversification. The Indian Ocean has been hypothesized as a ‘dispersal corridor’ connecting hydrothermal vent fauna of Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Stalked barnacles of the family Eolepadidae are common associates of deep-sea vents in Southern, Pacific and Indian oceans, and the family is an ideal group for testing this hypothesis. Here, we describe Neolepas marisindica sp. nov. from the Indian Ocean, distinguished from N. zevinae and N. rapanuii by having a tridentoid mandible in which the second tooth lacks small elongated teeth. Morphological variations suggest that environmental differences result in phenotypic plasticity in the capitulum and scales on the peduncle in eolepadids. We suggest that diagnostic characters in Eolepadidae should be based mainly on more reliable arthropodal characters and DNA barcoding, while the plate arrangement should be used carefully with their intraspecific variation in mind. We show morphologically that Neolepas specimens collected from the South West Indian Ridge, the South East Indian Ridge and the Central Indian Ridge belong to the new species. Molecular phylogeny and fossil evidence indicated that Neolepas migrated from the southern Pacific to the Indian Ocean through the Southern Ocean, providing key evidence against the ‘dispersal corridor’ hypothesis. Exploration of the South East Indian Ridge is urgently required to understand vent biogeography in the Indian Ocean.
Neolepas marisindica, Paratype specimens and in situ photographs
- Watanabe HK*, Chen C, Marie DP, Takai K, Fujikura K, Chan BKK* (2018). Phylogeography of hydrothermal vent stalked barnacles: a new species fills a gap in the Indian Ocean ‘dispersal corridor’ hypothesis. Royal Society Open Science, 5: 172408. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.172408