Azooxanthellate Scleractinia (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from South Africa

Abstract

Globally, South Africa ranks in the top five countries regarding marine species richness per unit area. Given the high diversity, it is not surprising that many invertebrate taxa in the region are poorly characterised. The South African azooxanthellate Scleractinia (Anthozoa) is one such taxonomic group, and was last reviewed by Boshoff in 1980. Although more recent regional publications have reported on some species, there has not been a faunistic review that accounts for the country’s species diversity since then. Moreover, numerous unidentified specimens representing more than three decades of sampling effort have accumulated. In this study the authors update the state of knowledge of South African azooxanthellate coral species. Specimens, particularly those within the extensive collections of the Iziko South African and Smithsonian museums, were morphologically examined and identified. Other data considered included historic data represented as imagery data, associated species data from recent research surveys, and the scientific literature. To date, the study has increased the total number of known species from 77 to 108 across eleven families, 28 new South African records, and three are new species with one new genus.

Lifting back the waters: Marine geophysics provides new insights into the uThukela Banks Marine Protected Area

“…ROV and drop camera transects reveal the -60 m shorelines to have a variety of encrusting mesophotic corals, including dense seafans (probably Astromuricea fusca), soft corals Parasphaerosclera aurea, dendrophyllid scleractinians 47 and black corals of the genera Antipathes and Stichopathes (Figure 6c). These are shown in seismic reflection profiles to constitute domed, hyperbolic reflections that form the upper surface, with an acoustically transparent to weakly reflective signature.…”

On the paradox of thriving cold‐water coral reefs in the food‐limited deep sea

“…In this review, we focus on scleractinian CWCs that can form or contribute to large, long‐lasting carbonate reefs in the deep sea (Table 1). Small coral polyps (<1 cm diameter; Filander et al ., 2021) secrete an aragonite (calcium carbonate) skeleton and together can form ~1.5 m‐high CWC colonies (Fig. 1; Wilson, 1979).…”

Corrigendum: Filander ZN, Kitahara MV, Cairns SD, Sink KJ, Lombard AT (2021) Azooxanthellate Scleractinia (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from South Africa. ZooKeys 1066: 1–198. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1066.69697

“…This is a short communication to revise the plates presented in the Filander et al (2021) monograph on the South African azooxanthellate coral fauna. The authors moreover take this opportunity to retract the addition of Paracontrochus capensis (Gardiner, 1904) as a synonym of Monohedotrochus capensis (Gardiner, 1905).…”