A new family of Asellota (Crustacea, Isopoda) from the deep sea of Zealandia

  • A new family-level taxon of deep-sea isopods, Basoniscus hikurangi gen. et sp. nov., was recovered from the Hikurangi Plateau in the deep sea off eastern New Zealand. The broad-bodied, eyeless, seemingly unremarkable isopod was unusual in its possession of features that characterize two different families: the shallow water Joeropsididae Nordenstam, 1933 and the deep-sea Haploniscidae Hansen, 1916. An analysis of superfamily Janiroidea G.O. Sars, 1897 was conducted to establish the affinities of the species. Multiple analyses were done using unweighted and implied weighted characters. Existing families were well supported, with B. hikurangi intermediate between Joeropsididae and Haploniscidae. The new species, however, cannot be placed in either family owing to its lack of important defining synapomorphies of each family. As a result, Basoniscidae fam. nov. was created to contain this new species. That rocky hard substrates are undersampled is another implication. Our understanding of deep-sea species richness will not be accurate until more efforts are made to survey these habitats, especially more sites in the southern hemisphere. These gaps in our knowledge of the deep sea impairs any general claims about the distribution of biodiversity on a global scale. This find demonstrates that museums hold underused but valuable resources for understanding and describing the biodiversity of the deep sea.

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Author:George D. F. WilsonORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-735993
DOI:https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2024.917.2393
ISSN:2118-9773
Parent Title (German):European journal of taxonomy
Series (Serial Number):European journal of taxonomy : EJT (917:122-151)
Publisher:Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Place of publication:Paris
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2024/01/11
Date of first Publication:2024/01/11
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2024/01/15
Tag:Deep Sea; Hikurangi Plateau; hard substrates; phylogenetic analysis; superfamily Janiroidea
Volume:2024
Issue:917
Page Number:30
First Page:122
Last Page:151
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Sammlungen:Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte
:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-257882
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0