New and little-known cheilostomatous Bryozoa from the south and southeastern Brazilian continental shelf and slope
Author
Vieira, Leandro M.
Author
Gordon, Dennis P.
Author
Souza, Facelucia B. C.
Author
Haddad, Maria Angélica
text
Zootaxa
2010
2722
1
53
journal article
46928
10.5281/zenodo.276516
bc559380-c662-45b3-8e4e-6f63e11d9c90
1175-5326
276516
Malakosaria atlantica
n. sp.
(
Figures 64–66
,
Table 13
)
Material examined.
Holotype
.
MZUSP
0 312,
Brazil
, project REVIZEE South
SCORE
, RV ‘Prof. Wladimir Besnard’, station 6686.
Paratypes
.
MZUSP
0 313,
Brazil
, project REVIZEE South
SCORE
, RV ‘Prof. Wladimir Besnard’, station 6661 (alcohol 70%).
MZUSP
0 314, station 6666.
Diagnosis.
Colony erect, dichotomously branching; elongate autozooids, longer than
Malakosaria sinclairii
, back to back in overlapping alternating pairs, tapering proximally.
Etymology.
Name alluding to the first record of the genus at Atlantic waters.
Description.
Colony erect, dichotomously branching, attaining
80 mm
height. Zooids elongate, arranged back to back in overlapping alternating pairs; zooids at bifurcations medially constricted. Frontal-shield calcification smooth, cryptocystidean with minimal development of the hypostegal coelom, imperforate except for a crescentic toothed ascopore and six shallow, subrectangular to oval excavations around the semicircular orifice, of which two occur between ascopore and orifice; between each pair of pore-chambers a much smaller circular pore. No oral spines or other processes. Ovicells not present in the available material.
TABLE 13.
Measurements (in mm) of
Malakosaria atlantica
n. sp.
n min–max mean SD Autozooid length 20 0.877–1.173 0.877 0.069 Autozooid width 20 0.272–0.309 0.294 0.012 Orifice length 20 0.105–0.130 0.116 0.006 Orifice width 20 0.148–0.191 0.163 0.010
Remarks.
Malakosaria atlantica
n. sp.
resembles the Pacific
type
species
Malakosaria sinclairii
(
Busk, 1857
)
in colony morphology but differs in branch width, proportionality of zooidal dimensions, and zooid shape.
Busk (1857)
noted that
M. sinclairii
was collected by Andrew Sinclair from
New Zealand
. Based on Sinclair’s known travels, which were fairly extensive in the North
Island
, it is not certain where his material came from but the shores of Cook Strait are not improbable;
M. sinclairii
grows as shallow as
11 m
depth on rock walls near the entrance to Wellington Harbour, where many beach-cast bryozoan species can be abundant after strong southerly storms. We have closely compared
M. atlantica
with
M. sinclairii
from
New Zealand
, both by direct visual comparison by laying branches of each species alongside each other under the same microscope, and by measurements of zooidal parameters.
M. sinclairii
has wider branches (
0.47–0.58 mm
) and consistently shorter zooids (
0.57–0.78 mm
) while the Brazilian species is
0.272–0.309 mm
wide and
0.877-1.173 mm
long. Other dimensions overlap, but the elongate zooids of
M. atlantica
taper proximally whereas those of
M. sinclairii
are nearly of equal width throughout their length. Since
M. sinclairii
in
New Zealand
occurs from only shallow water to shelf depths, it is likely that published records from the south Indian Ocean and from the deep sea (see synonymy in
Gordon 1989
) are not conspecific.
FIGURES 64–66.
Malakosaria atlantica
n. sp.
,
MZUSP 0 312 (part of the holotype specimen), off Paraná, Brazil.
64
, Detail of colony;
65
, close-up of branching zooid;
66
, close-up of orifice with associated pore-chambers and ascopore.
Distribution.
Brazil
: off São Paulo and Paraná states,
147–380 m
(present study).