Schizopathidae Brook, 1889

Opresko, Dennis M. & Molodtsova, Tina N., 2021, New species of deep-sea Antipatharians from the North Pacific (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Antipatharia), Part 2, Zootaxa 4999 (5), pp. 401-422 : 402

Family Schizopathidae Brook, 1889

Diagnosis. Polyps elongated transversely; 2 mm or more in transverse diameter, with six primary and four secondary mesenteries. Corallum monopodial or branched; stem and branches pinnulate. Pinnules simple or complexly subpinnulate. Spines triangular to conical, simple or rarely with multiple bifurcations at apex, subequal in size around circumference of axis or larger on one side.

Remarks. This family is derived from the subfamily Schizopathinae, Brook, 1889 , which originally contained the genera Schizopathes Brook, 1889 , Bathypathes Brook, 1889 , Taxipathes Brook, 1889 , and Cladopathes Brook, 1889 . In 1902 Roule elevated the subfamily to the family level and in 1905 established the family Parantipathidae Roule, 1905 for the genus Parantipathes Brook, 1889 , which Brook had previously assigned to the subfamily Antipathinae Brook, 1889 . Based on the differences in the transverse diameter of the polyps, Opresko (2002) recognized two subfamiles, the Schizopathinae containing the genera Schizopathes , Bathypathes , Stauropathes Opresko, 2002 , Abyssopathes Opresko, 2002 , Saropathes Opresko, 2002 , and Dendrobathypathes Opresko, 2002 , and the Parantipathinae containing the genera Parantipathes , Taxipathes and Lillipathes Opresko, 2002 . In recent DNA studies using the mitochondrial (mt) gene regions cox -cox1 and nad5-nad1, Chery et al. (2018) found that representatives of the genera Bathypathes , Stauropathes and Telopathes MacIsaac & Best, 2013 , grouped together into one clade and all the other genera in the family, including Parantipathes and Schizopathes , the nominate genus of the family, fell into a sister group. Based on complete mitochondrial genomes, Barrett et al. (2020) reported a similar close grouping between representatives of the North-Atlantic genera Bathypathes , Stauropathes and Telopathes , that formed a sister clade with Parantipathes spp. ; however, Schizopathes was not included in the analysis. In contrast, in a study using ultraconserved elements (UCEs) of genomes, Horowitz et al. 2020), found that a specimen of Schizopathes affinis Brook, 1889 , grouped with two specimens of Bathypathes patula in a clade that also included a specimen of Telopathes . Samples of Parantipathes were not included in that analysis. Further study is needed to clarify the relationships between the genera currently assigned to the family.