Abstract
The stunning diversity of midwater ctenophores is well-known to veterans of oceanographic cruises and ROV operations, but many species lack formal descriptions, leading to taxonomic confusion and a systematic underestimation of the biodiversity of the mesopelagic zone. Here, we present a description of a novel genus and species of one such ctenophore, Vampyroctena delmarvensis gen. nov. sp. nov. This cydippid ctenophore, the sole described representative of Vampyroctenidae fam. nov. (Class Tentaculata, Order Cydippida), was collected in mesopelagic waters off the coast of Delaware in the northwest Atlantic Ocean and has a characteristic bright red mesoglea, large paragastric diverticulae, deep red macrocilia, and a darkly pigmented gut. A molecular phylogenetic analysis of Ctenophora based on transcriptomic data places V. delmarvensis gen. nov. sp. nov. as the closest known relative to Euplokamis dunlapae Mills, 1987 (Euplokamididae), in a clade that is sister to all other ctenophore lineages.
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Acknowledgments
The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. We thank Dr. Steven Haddock for providing comments that improved the manuscript and illustrations. We also thank Drs. Dhugal Lindsay, Claudia Mills, Otto Oliveira, and several anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on this manuscript. This work was made possible in part by a grant of high-performance computing resources and technical support from the Alabama Supercomputer Authority. Special thanks to the crew of the R/V Hugh R. Sharp. This work is Auburn University Marine Biology Program contribution #197 and Molette Lab contribution #98.
Funding
This work was supported by National Science Foundation award #1351935 and a Packard Foundation fellowship to AMS, as well as National Aeronautics and Space Administration award #NNX13AJ31G to KMH. ADS is funded by Fulbright Spain Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies and the NSF Waterman Award awarded to his PI Casey W. Dunn.
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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for animal testing, animal care, and use of animals were followed by the authors.
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All necessary permits for sampling and observational field studies have been obtained by the authors from the competent authorities and are mentioned in the acknowledgments, if applicable. The study is compliant with CBD and Nagoya protocols
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The holotype has been deposited at the Auburn Museum of Natural History under accession number 45516. The sequence datasets generated during the current study are available in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) repository, under BioProject accession numbers SAMN11840746 and SAMN11840747.
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JPT collected and dissected samples, prepared and reviewed manuscript, took photographs, and prepared visualizations/illustrations. MGT collected and dissected samples, performed molecular lab work and data analysis. ADS collected samples, prepared illustrations, and reviewed the manuscript. NVW collected and dissected samples, performed molecular lab work and data analysis, and reviewed the manuscript. KMH reviewed the manuscript and analyses. AMS served as cruise chief scientist and reviewed the manuscript.
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Communicated by B. W. Hoeksema
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Electronic supplementary material
Online Resource 1
Table of transcriptomic datasets used in the present study (XLSX 11.6 kb)
Online Resource 2
Table of 18S rRNA datasets used in the present study (XLSX 15.1 kb)
Live Vampyroctena delmarvensis gen. nov. sp. nov. in an obsevation aquarium, viewed through the tentacular plane.
When tapped with a glass pipette, the tentacles sometimes appear to "probe" the inside of the pipette. No positive or negative back pressure was applied to the pipette to evoke this behavior (MP4 23.9 MB)
Closeup of Vampyroctena delmarvensis gen. nov. sp. nov. tentacle "probing" behavior and ctene beating (MP4 42.4 MB)
Online Resource 5
Table of collection and trait details for Vampyroctena delmarvensis gen. nov. sp. nov. and possible congenerics (XLSX 95.9 kb)
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Townsend, J.P., Tassia, M.G., Damian-Serrano, A. et al. A mesopelagic ctenophore representing a new family, with notes on family-level taxonomy in Ctenophora: Vampyroctena delmarvensis gen. nov. sp. nov. (Vampyroctenidae, fam. nov.). Mar. Biodivers. 50, 34 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01049-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01049-9