Two New Species of Octocorals Discovered
Posted on June 3, 2013
A new study of octocorals from the north eastern Pacific Ocean reveals two new species of soft corals as well as a new genus. There are over 3,000 species of octocorallia. These colonial organisms have eight tentacles and resemble stony corals, but lack a stony skeleton.
The paper describes a new species of pale orange stoloniferous soft coral, Cryptophyton jedsmithi (pictured above), from San Diego, California. Another new species of the soft coral Gersemia from the coast of British Columbia, Canada has been also described. Gersemia lambi is pictured below. The study was published here in Zookeys.
The study also defines a new genus named for a species previously placed in a tropical Indo-Pacific genus for the past century. The species for which the genus was erected inhabits the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary near San Francisco, California, as well as several other localities on the Pacific Coast.
Dr. Williams, California Academy of Sciences, author of the study, said in a statement, "It is remarkable that in a region previously thought to be as familiar and well known as the west coast of North America - with its numerous large urban centers and major marine laboratories - revisionary systematics are not only still possible, but essential for our understanding of global biodiversity."
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