Deep-sea biologist. Malacologist. Evolutionary biologist. "Mollusc collector", photographer.
This study reports three types of brucite-carbonate chimneys from the deepest known serpentinite-hosted vent in the world, the 5700 m deep Shinkai Seep Field in Mariana forearc. Although mainly a geochemistry/geology paper, the chimneys are inhabited by some megafaunal animals and brief descriptions of the colonies are included. Molluscs are also present, such as Provanna snails. The paper is open-access so anyone can read it for free!
A new paper lead-authored by myself has been published in Molluscan Research! The paper describeds a new species of Desbruyeresia (Gastropoda: Provannidae), Desbruyeresia chamorrensis Chen, Ogura & Okutani in Chen et al., 2016. The family Provannidae is only known from chemosynthetic ecosystems, and genus Desbruyeresia was previously restricted to hydrothermal vents. The present new species, however, was discovered from an alkaline serpentinite-hosted seep more than 2900m deep on the South Chamorro Seamount (13°47’N, 146°00’E), southeastern Mariana Forearc. It is a deposit feeder and only three specimens have been collected so far. It is distinguished from all other described congeners by having much more numerous (17–20) axial ribs on the teleoconch and a broad shell for the genus (shell width to height ratio 0.6–0.65). It was a great pleasure working with the eminent Japanese malacologist Prof. Takashi Okutani during the course of this project.
Holotype of the new species:
