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The occurrence of corallimorpharians (naked corals)

The occurrence of corallimorpharians (naked corals). Daphne G. Fautin Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Natural History Museum University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA John M. Guinotte Marine Conservation Biology Institute 2122 112th Ave NE, Suite B-300

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The occurrence of corallimorpharians (naked corals)

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  1. The occurrence of corallimorpharians (naked corals) Daphne G. Fautin Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Natural History Museum University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA John M. Guinotte Marine Conservation Biology Institute 2122 112th Ave NE, Suite B-300 Bellevue, Washington 98004, USA

  2. CORALLIMORPHARIA

  3. DIVERSITY • 1631 valid species of Scleractinia • 55 valid species of Corallimorpharia • 1112 valid species of Actiniaria • Members of all taxa occur throughout the world’s oceans

  4. PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS

  5. to compare the depth distribution of deep-sea corallimorpharians with that of deep-sea scleractinians OBJECTIVE to infer if CaCO3 concentration may be relevant to the occurrence of these animals that are so similar except for the skeleton

  6. http://hercules.kgs.ku.edu/Hexacoral/Anemone2 DATA:general surveys rather than those for the target organisms

  7. The Challenger Expedition and US Antarctic Program

  8. Challenger ScleractiniaCorallimorpharia Species98 (91 to species) 3 (in 41 genera) (All Corallimorphus) Stations 70 6 (Both occurred at 3 stations) Depth range 18-5304 m 2515-3950 m Average depth 1439 m 3142 m p = 0.000201 t-test 1-tailed, unequal variance

  9. Antarctic ScleractiniaCorallimorpharia Species38 (37 to species) 2 (in 19 genera) (Both Corallimorphus) Stations 190 12 (Both occurred at 8 stations) Depth range 9-4840 m 132-4410 m Average depth 676 m 1600 m p = 0.019613 t-test 1-tailed, unequal variance

  10. COMPARISONS between Antarctic and Challenger data • Antarctic lower diversity in both taxa • Twice as many stations in Antarctic • Average Antarctic depth about half that of Challenger for both taxa • In Antarctica, depth range of Scleractinia slightly shallower, that of Corallimorpharia considerably shallower and deeper Yet average depth of corallimorpharians significantly deeper in both datasets

  11. CaCO3 concentration:proportion deeper than aragonite saturation horizon (1995) ScleractiniaCorallimorpharia Challenger stations 18/40 (45%) 5/5 (100%) species 19/98 (19%) 3/3 (100%) (in 10/41 genera) Antarctic stations 29/122 (24%) 5/10 (50%) species 16/38 (42%) 2/2 (100%) (in 9/19 genera)

  12. IMPLICATIONS “Polyp bail-out”: under stress (including in aquaria), scleractinians can crawl out of their skeletons. Fine and Tchernov. 2007. Science. Scleractinian coral species survive and recover from decalcification. These “naked” polyps are indistinguishable from corallimorpharians

  13. IMPLICATIONS

  14. THE FUTURE?? More corallimorpharian species and/or Shallower scleractinians

  15. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS • Funding was provided by US National Science Foundation grants DEB95-21819 and DEB99-78106 (in the program PEET - Partnerships to Enhance Expertise in Taxonomy), grant OCE 00-03970, and grant EF-0531779 (in the program Assembling the Tree of Life). • Sukeerthi Bokka for assembling data • Matthew Jones for photo of corallimorpharian • James C Orr for CaCO3 concentration data

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