Chrysogorgiidae Verrill, 1883

Cairns, Stephen D. & Cordeiro, Ralf T. S., 2017, A new genus and species of golden coral (Anthozoa, Octocorallia, Chrysogorgiidae) from the Northwest Atlantic, ZooKeys 668, pp. 1-10 : 1

Family Chrysogorgiidae Verrill, 1883

Chrysogorgidae Verrill 1883: 21.

Chrysogorgiidae : Versluys 1902: 2-4; Bayer 1956: F216; Bayer and Muzik 1976: 67-69 (key to genera); Bayer 1979: 876-878 (key to genera); Cairns 2001: 748-754 (synonymy); Pante and France 2010: 600 (key to genera); Watling et al. 2011: 68-74 (distribution maps of all genera); Pante et al. 2012: 1-12 (phylogenetic and bathymetric analyses).

Type genus.

Chrysogorgia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864.

Diagnosis

(after Cairns (2001) and Pante et al. (2012)). Calcaxonians having an unjointed, solid (non-spicular), concentrically layered scleroproteinous axis. The axial layers are usually smooth (not undulated) and thus not longitudinally grooved externally; the axis usually displays metallic or iridescent reflections. The colony may be branched or unbranched (flagelliform), arising from a root-like or discoidal, strongly calcified holdfast. Polyps are contractile but not retractile, arranged in rows (uniserial, biserial or multiserial), but never in whorls. Sclerites predominantly flat, smooth scales, in some species warty rods and spindles.

Remarks.

Fourteen genera have been assigned to the Chrysogorgiidae , but based on sequencing of three genes, Pante et al. (2012) have suggested that only six of these genera belong to Chrysogorgiidae sensu stricto, which they call the Monophyletic Chrysogorgiidae Clade, or MCC. They imply that the other genera may belong to as many as three other, as yet undescribed, families. The six genera of the MCC are keyed by Pante and France (2010) and their worldwide distributions plotted by Watling et al. (2011). They are further discussed by Pante et al. (2012) in the context of a phylogenetic analysis. Flagelligorgia is morphologically most similar to Radicipes , which is part of the MCC, but lacking material suitable for molecular analysis, the placement of Flagelligorgia in that family can only be a suggestion at this time. In fact, we did attempt to sequence four genes (COI, mtMutS, 28S and 18S) from specimens collected in 1964 with no results.

Distribution.

Worldwide, 31-4492 m depths ( Pante and Watling 2011: 6).