Salenocidaris sp. indet.

Gerdes, Klaas, Kihara, Terue Cristina, Martinez Arbizu, Pedro, Kuhn, Thomas, Schwarz-Schampera, Ulrich, Mah, Christopher L, Norenburg, Jon L, Linley, Thomas D, Shalaeva, Kate, Macpherson, Enrique, Gordon, Dennis, Stoehr, Sabine, Messing, Charles G, Bober, Simon, Guggolz, Theresa, Christodoulou, Magdalini, Gebruk, Andrey, Kremenetskaia, Antonina, Kroh, Andreas, Sanamyan, Karen, Bolstad, Kathrin, Hoffman, Leon, Gooday, Andrew J & Molodtsova, Tina, 2021, Megafauna of the German exploration licence area for seafloor massive sulphides along the Central and South East Indian Ridge (Indian Ocean), Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 69955-69955 : 69955

Salenocidaris sp. indet.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: ROPOS.COM; individualCount: 1; lifeStage: Adult; behavior: on sediment; occurrenceStatus: present; preparations: Imaged only; associatedMedia: R2095_00122.jpg; Taxon: taxonConceptID: Salenocidaris sp. indet.; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Echinodermata; class: Echinoidea; order: Salenioida; family: Saleniidae; genus: Salenocidaris; taxonRank: Genus; scientificNameAuthorship: Agassiz, 1869; Location: waterBody: Indian Ocean; stateProvince: South East Indian Ridge ; locality: Vent site 6 ; verbatimLocality: Cluster 12; maximumDepthInMeters: 2387; locationRemarks: RV Pelagia Cruise INDEX2018 Leg 2; geodeticDatum: WGS84; coordinateUncertaintyInMeters: 24; Identification: identifiedBy: Andreas Kroh; identificationRemarks: Identified only from imagery; identificationQualifier: sp. indet.; Event: eventDate: 2018-11-23; eventTime: 8:11:50 am; year: 2018; fieldNumber: INDEX2018-63ROPOS; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: DZMB; datasetName: INDEX; basisOfRecord: Human Observation

Notes

Remarks: The presence of relatively few, long and slender spines with upturned distal ends characterise the observed echinoids as saleniids. This is further supported by the excentric position of the periproct and large apical disc seen in Fig. 167 . Of extant saleniids, three genera are known, two of these ( Salenia and Bathysalenia ) are characterised by distinctly banded spines (with the exception of Salenia unicolor Mortensen 1934 from the Sagami Sea and the Celebes Sea) and can be excluded. Salenia unicolor is reported to have greenish-white primary spines and a greyish-purple test ( Mortensen 1935), unlike the observed animals which have white spines and a white to light purple test. The observed specimens are thus assigned to the genus Salenocidaris . Amongst Salenocidaris , the most likely candidate seems to be S. hastigera ( Agassiz 1879), which fits in terms of colouration and has been reported from the Malay Archipelago and the Indian Ocean ( Mortensen 1935). The latter were assigned to a separate variety (now considered a subspecies) S. hastigera acuminata , based on the long and pointed ambulacral spines ( Mortensen 1934) - a feature which cannot be evaluated in the in-situ images available. A second possible candidate species is Salenocidaris incrassata Mortensen, 1934 described from the Celebes Sea. It is characterised by non-contiguous areoles of the primary interambulacral tubercles and distally thickened secondary spines - again features not visible in the available imagery. All other Salenocidaris species are either occurring in different oceans or are characterised by violet to dark purple tests and can, therefore, easily be excluded.

Figures

Figure 167. Salenocidaris sp. indet. in situ in the surrounding area of the vent site 6 hydrothermal vent field in Cluster 12 of the INDEX area. Image corresponds with the data (Image attribution: BGR).