Recent Brachiopoda from the Mozambique-Madagascar area, western Indian Ocean Author Bitner, Maria Aleksandra Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Twarda 51 / 55, 00 - 818 Warszaw (Poland) bitner @ twarda. pan. pl bitner@twarda.pan.pl Author Logan, Alan Centre for Coastal Studies, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, N. B., E 2 L 4 L 5 (Canada) logan @ unbsj. ca Published on 25 March 2016 logan@unbsj.ca text Zoosystema 2016 2016-03-31 38 1 5 41 http://dx.doi.org/10.5252/z2016n1a1 journal article 10.5252/z2016n1a1 1638-9387 4578148 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:96BFE594-1B39-4541-9441-181617BD4CF9 Nipponithyris afra Cooper, 1973 ( Fig. 16 ; Table 14 ) Nipponithyris afra Cooper, 1973a: 20-21 , pl. 71, figs 1-21. — Zezina 1985: 161 ; 1994: 48 ; 2010: 1196 . — Hiller 1994: 778 . — Laurin 1997: 449 , figs 35, 47A-G. MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Mozambique Channel. MAINBAZA, stn CP 3139, 14 bivalved specimens. — Stn CP 3140, 32 bivalved specimens. — Stn 3141, 11 bivalved specimens. — Stn 3142, 2 bivalved specimens. — Stn CC 3166, 9 bivalved specimens. — Stn CC 3171, 5 bivalved specimens. North-West Madagascar . MIRIKY, stn CP 3235, 42 bivalved specimens. — Stn CP 3252, 3 bivalved specimens. — Stn DW 3253, 1 bivalved specimen. — Stn CP 3278, 3 bivalved specimens. DEPTH RANGE . — 243-1195 m . MEASUREMENTS. — See Table 14. REMARKS Of the three species of Nipponithyris so far recorded from modern seas ( Logan 2007 ; Bitner 2008) N. afra is the only one from the Indian Ocean , occurring off Mozambique at depths of 740-960 m ( Cooper 1973a ). This species is characterized by a smooth, sulcate shell, strongly thickened posteriorly. The specimens identified here, which extend the species’ depth range, are generally larger in the mature stage than those described by Cooper (1973a) but are otherwise closely similar. Fig. 16K shows the complete loop in an early terebratelliform stage from MAINBAZA station 3139 and may be compared with one of Cooper’s paratypes shown in his plate 7, fig. 19. In the studied material Nipponithyris afra is one of the commonest species (more than 120 specimens ).