Chuan Yu, Dongsheng Zhang‡, Ruiyan Zhang§, Chunsheng Wang|Corresponding author: Chuan Yu ( yuchuan5213@sjtu.edu.cn ) Corresponding author: Chunsheng Wang ( wangsio@sio.org.cn ) © Chuan Yu, Dongsheng Zhang, Ruiyan Zhang, Chunsheng Wang. 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, Zhang D, Zhang R, Wang C (2021) New psychropotid species (Echinodermata Holothuroidea Elasipodida) of the Western Pacific with phylogenetic analyses. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e70999 |  |
Holothurians of the family Psychropotidae are widely distributed, but remain least studied deep-sea holothurians. On an expedition in the Western Pacific, six psychropotid specimens were collected by the Jiaolong human operated vehicle (HOV). Through morphological examination, four 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 primary crosses. The remaining two specimens were identified as Psychropotes verrucicaudatus Xiao, Gong, Kou & Li, 2019, which was first recorded at the Kyushu-Palau Ridge. 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 containing the other Benthodytes species.