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Type: Article
Published: 2020-04-28
Page range: 215–224
Abstract views: 21
PDF downloaded: 1

Eucheumatopsis sanibelensis sp. nov. from the Gulf coast of Florida, USA

Department of Biology, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106, USA
Department of Biology, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106, USA
Centre for Environmental and Molecular Algal Research, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, Canada
COI-5P Florida Gulf of Mexico Eucheumatopsis isiformis LSU rDNA rbcL Solieriaceae Rhodophyta western Atlantic Algae

Abstract

Based upon COI-5P, LSU rDNA and rbcL sequence data, as well as its morphological characteristics, a new red algal species, Eucheumatopsis sanibelensis E.S.Peterson, C.W.Schneider et G.W.Saunders sp. nov., was discovered on the Gulf coast of Florida, USA and shown to be distinct from the generitype E. isiformis with a type locality in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The new more attenuate taxon from Sanibel Island represents only the second species in this newly described genus, a genus recently segregated from Eucheuma based upon significant molecular and morphological differences. The two species have overlapping geographic distributions in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but thus far E. sanibelensis is only known from a single location.