Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 3887 No. 5: 27 Nov. 2014
Type: Article
Published: 2014-11-27
DOI: 10.11646/Zootaxa.3887.5.3
Page range: 555–568
Abstract views: 70
PDF downloaded: 1

A new annelid species from whalebones in Greenland and aquaculture sites in Newfoundland: Ophryotrocha cyclops, sp. nov. (Eunicida: Dorvilleidae)

Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL A1B 3X9, Canada
Natural History Museum, Life Sciences Department, Cromwell Rd, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom
Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL A1B 3X9, Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Center, P.O. Box 5667, St John’s, NL A1C 5X1, Canada
Huntsman Marine Science Centre, 1 Lower Campus Road, St. Andrews, NB E5B 2L7, Canada
Marine Biological Section, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 4, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Phylogeny organic enrichment taxonomy annelids

Abstract

A new species of Ophryotrocha was discovered on whalebones in Greenland (120 m depth) and at finfish aquaculture sites in Newfoundland (30–70 m depth), where it is considered to be a bioindicator of aquaculture-related organic enrichment. Phylogenetic analyses based on three genes (COI, 16S mitochondrial and H3 nuclear genes) show close affinities with O. lobifera and O. craigsmithi, two species also found on both whalebones and at aquaculture sites (North Sea), and with O. shieldsi from aquaculture sites in Tasmania. The new species is named Ophryotrocha cyclops sp. nov. due to the juxtaposed, quasi-fused central eyes that give the impression of a single eye in live specimens.