A new name for the deep-sea chiton Leptochiton clarki Sigwart & Sirenko non Berry (Lepidopleurida: Leptochitonidae)
Author
Sigwart, Julia D.
Author
Sirenko, Boris I.
text
Zootaxa
2015
3986
2
249
250
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3986.2.9
672a6747-9761-420e-a203-552e559681b6
1175-5326
245703
CBB1B9CF-C300-4FCC-8C66-181E90CFD1DC
Leptochiton
Gray, 1847
Leptochiton rogeri
nom. nov. pro
Leptochiton clarki
Sigwart & Sirenko
non Berry
Leptochiton clarki
Sigwart & Sirenko, 2012
: 22
–23, figures 4F, 15, 16, table 2, table 3. [Recent,
Solomon Islands
,
399–
700 m
.]
non
Leptochiton clarki
Berry, 1922
: 427
–430, figures 1–4, 10;
Squires and Goeddert 1995
: 51
; Dell’Angelo et al 2011: 939. [Pleistocene, Monterey, California.]
Type
material.
Holotype
(
MNHN
23701) disarticulated, consisting of mounts of shell, perinotum and radula, 5
paratypes
(
MNHN
23702) and 1
paratype
(
ZISP
).
Distribution
. Off
Solomon Islands
,
305 m
and
708–1135 m
. Found living and feeding on sunken terrestrial plant remains.
Etymology
. The species is named after Roger Clark of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History,
USA
, who is a specialist on eastern Pacific chitons.
Remarks.
As
previously outlined by
Sigwart & Sirenko (2012)
, this species is a small chiton with white valves, similar in appearance to several other species inhabiting tropical Pacific sunken wood communities. The distinctive features of this species are the valves with distinctive granules (51 µm) forming widely separated radiating rows, with four micraesthetes in each aesthete group.
Leptochiton rogeri
has distinctive intersegmental bristles (450 µm) and long marginal fringe. There are four gills per side.
Leptochiton clarki
Berry, 1922
is known only from the Pleistocene of California (
type
locality, Upper
San Pedro
Pleistocene of Long Wharf Canyon, Santa Monica, California), and there is no evidence of any association with sunken wood.