Two new Tursiocola species (Bacillariophyta) epizoic on green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in French Guiana and Eastern Caribbean

Abstract

Abstract:Scrapings from several juvenile Chelonia mydas linnaeus (green turtle) from Eastern Caribbean and adults from French Guiana allowed for the description of two small and relatively rare epizoic Tursiocola species (Bacillariophyta). Differences with the other eight Tursiocola species previously described are discussed here. Particular attention is given to the cingulum of the two new species and a conceptual key is proposed for Tursiocola species, based on the cingulum structure.

Biodiversity of carapace epibiont diatoms in loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta Linnaeus 1758) in the Aegean Sea Turkish coast

“…which we consider potentially new to science (Kaleli et al in preparation). Representatives of Chelonicola and Tripterion have been described and observed as obligately epizoic forms on seaturtle carapaces from oceanic waters (Majewska et al, 2015a;Riaux-Gobin et al, 2017a;Riaux-Gobin et al, 2017b) and have not yet been found on other substrates. Achnanthes elongata was described from samples from the Pacific coasts and with this study observed for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, O. seblae has only been observed in the Mediterranean Sea (Kaleli et al, 2018).…”

“…Although epizoic diatoms on vertebrates were first described from cetaceans, freshwater and sea turtles can also host very specific diatom floras ( Nemoto, 1956 ; Holmes, Nagasawa & Takano, 1993a ; Holmes, Nagasawa & Takano, 1993b ; Denys, 1997 ; Riaux-Gobin et al, 2017a ; Riaux-Gobin et al, 2017b ). Loggerhead sea turtles ( Caretta caretta Linnaeus, 1758) are one of the seven species of sea turtles ( Lutz & Musick, 1997 ), distributed from tropical waters of the Indian and the Pacific Ocean to temperate waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea ( Ernst, Barbour & Lovich, 1994 ).…”

“…The same authors found that the sea turtle carapace could be host to several undescribed taxa ( Robinson et al, 2016 ). There have been a number of recent papers with analyses of the epibiont diatom composition on the carapace of the sea turtles ( Frankovich, Sullivan & Stacy, 2015 ; Majewska et al, 2015a ; Majewska et al, 2015b ; Majewska et al, 2017a ; Riaux-Gobin et al, 2017a ; Riaux-Gobin et al, 2017b ). Several diatom genera and species have been described as new to science from the carapace of sea turtles from different geographic regions.…”

“…Chelonicola caribeana Riaux-Gobin, Witkowski, Ector & Chevallier and Tripterion societatis Riaux-Gobin, Witkowski & Ector were identified and described from the Atlantic Ocean from green sea turtle ( Chelonia mydas Linnaeus, 1758) population ( Riaux-Gobin et al, 2017b ). Additionally, Tursiocola yin-yangii Riaux-Gobin & Witkowski and Tursiocola guyanensis Riaux-Gobin & Witkowski were described from green turtles in French Guiana and the eastern Caribbean ( Riaux-Gobin et al, 2017a ). Research on Tursiocola and Tripterion species revealed that some epibiont diatoms could live on various animals’ skin or carapaces.…”

Diatom Diversity on the Skin of Frozen Historic Loggerhead Sea Turtle Specimens

“…With the recent increased interest in diatom diversity on marine vertebrates [1][2][3][4] in general and sea turtles in particular [5][6][7][8][9][10], a considerable number of sea turtle-associated diatom taxa have been described within the last five years [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] and it became clear that diatoms constitute an important element of the sea turtle epi-microbiome on both juvenile and adult individuals. Several sea turtle-associated diatom species have thus far only been reported from this substratum, suggesting a very close, even possibly obligatory relationship between the sea turtle-associated diatoms and their hosts.…”