NANOZOANTHIDAE, Fujii & Reimer, 2013

Fujii, Takuma & Reimer, James Davis, 2013, A new family of diminutive zooxanthellate zoanthids (Hexacorallia: Zoantharia), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 169 (3), pp. 509-522 : 512

NANOZOANTHIDAE FAM. NOV.

Type genus

Nanozoanthus gen. nov.

Etymology

As for the type genus, with ending as in other zoanthid families.

Diagnosis

Well-developed polyps connected by narrow stolon. Mineral particles encrusted in column from aboral end to the edge of the oral disc. Irregularly sized sand particles encrusted into ectoderm and slightly into mesoglea. Zigzagged, white-coloured pattern following outside edge of oral disc. Macrocnemic mesenterial arrangement. Sphincter muscle mesogleal. No lacunae or ring sinus. Zooxanthellate. Mitochondrial COI and 16S ribosomal DNA sequences significantly differ from all other known zoanthid genera ( Figs 1 , 2 ).

Remarks

Only a few other macrocnemic zoanthids symbiotic with zooxanthellae are known, primarily from the genera Parazoanthus and Isozoanthus . It is easy to distinguish this family from these two genera by the position of sphincter muscle and by the phylogenetically highly divergent COI and mt 16S rDNA sequences.

Figures

Figure 1 Bayesian tree of mitochondrial 16S ribosomal DNA for newly obtained sequences from zoanthid specimens in this study along with previously published GenBank sequences. Values of Bayesian posterior priorities> 0.95 and bootstrap values> 60% are shown at respective nodes. Sequences of Nanozoanthidae fam. nov. are set in bold. Species names of sequences from previous studies are set in normal (non-bold) font.

Figure 2. Bayesian tree of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I for newly obtained sequences from zoanthid specimens in this study along with previously published GenBank sequences. Values of Bayesian posterior priorities> 0.95 and bootstrap values> 60% are shown at respective nodes. Sequences of Nanozoanthidae fam. nov. are set in bold. Species names of sequences from previous studies are set in normal (non-bold) font.