Chuan Yu, Chunsheng Wang‡, Dongsheng Zhang‡, Ruiyan Zhang§Corresponding author: Chuan Yu ( yuchuan5213@sjtu.edu.cn ) Corresponding author: Chunsheng Wang ( wangsio@sio.org.cn ) © Chuan Yu, Chunsheng Wang, Dongsheng Zhang, Ruiyan Zhang. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Yu C, Wang C, Zhang D, Zhang R (2021) New Psychropotid species (Echinodermata Holothuroidea Elasipodida) of the Western Pacific with phylogenetic analyses. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e67903 |  |
Holothurians of the family Psychropotidae are widely distributed, but are the least studied deep-sea holothurians. On the expedition of the Western Pacific, four holothurians specimens of the family Psychropotidae were collected by the Jiaolong human operated vehicle (HOV). Through morphological examination, two of them were identified as a new species, Benthodytes jiaolongi sp. nov., which was characterized as having minute papillae, narrow brims, and terminal anus; the ossicles were either rods or absent. The remaining two specimens were identified as Psychropotes verrucicaudatus Xiao, Gong, Kou & Li, 2019, which was firstly recorded at Kyushu-Palau Ridge (KPR). The phylogenetic analysis confirmed the classification status of B. jiaolongi and P. verrucicaudatus, and indicated a paraphyletic relationship within the genus Benthodytes. The new species clustered with Benthodytes sanguinolenta and was separated from the clade of the other Benthodytes species. Furthermore, B. sanguinolenta and B. jiaolongi sp. nov. was found to be different from the other Benthodytes species based on their morphology. Therefore, a revision of the genus Benthodytes is needed to solve its phylogenetic relationship.