https://www.mapress.com/mt <p><strong>Megataxa</strong> is a premium open access journal for important works reporting major advances in taxonomy.</p> Magnolia press en-US Megataxa 2703-3082 <span lang="EN-GB">Authors need to complete and return an </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="/j/public/files/MTcopyright.rtf">Assignment of Copyright</a> </span><span lang="EN-GB">form when a paper is accepted for publication. Authors from institutions that do not allow transfer of copyrights to publishers (e.g. government institutions such as USDA, CSIRO) should attach a copyright waiver or similar document.</span> https://www.mapress.com/mt/article/view/megataxa.19.1.1 <p lang="en-US" align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Goniasteridae is the most diverse family of living asteroids, containing the greatest number of described genera and species. Herein, 28 new species, 3 new genera and 19 new records are described from New Caledonia, almost entirely from deep-sea settings (&gt;200 m). An accounting of the goniasterid fauna shows a total of over 70 species, in 38 genera from 3 subfamilies. If this is considered relative to the total known number of goniasterid species, this accounts for nearly 20% of total species and 46% of genera are represented from this region suggesting that the goniasterid diversity in this area is relatively high. </span></span></span></p> CHRISTOPHER L. MAH Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2026-01-06 2026-01-06 19 1 1–113 1–113 10.11646/megataxa.19.1.1 https://www.mapress.com/mt/article/view/megataxa.19.1.2 <p lang="en-US" align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-GB">We report on 27 asteroid specimens collected by the RV </span><em>Falkor</em>, using the ROV <em>SuBastian</em>, from mesophotic depths on Ashmore Reef in Western Australia, 2021. Of the total, 10 new species were collected, 9 of which are described here. Sixteen species were new occurrences for Western Australia. One additional shallow water species was observed at mesophotic depths but not collected. Each collected specimen was identified as a different species. In the Valvatida, this included Goniasteridae (n=9), Mithrodiidae (n=1), Ophidiasteridae (n=4), Asterinidae (n=3), Asterodiscididae (n=2), Oreasteridae (n=2), Podosphaerasteridae (n=1), and the Echinasteridae (n=3). Also present were two non-valvatidan groups, a brisingid from the Forcipulatacea and a new species of pterasterid in the genus <em>Euretaster </em>from the Velatida. Consistent with other accounts of mesophotic asteroid distribution, some of the species observed here, such as the goniasterid <em>Churaumiastra hoshi</em> Mah <em>et al</em>. 2024 have been found to be widely distributed across the Indo-Pacific.</span></span></span></p> CHRISTOPHER L. MAH OLIVER GOMEZ NERIDA WILSON ZOE RICHARDS Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2026-01-06 2026-01-06 19 1 114–175 114–175 10.11646/megataxa.19.1.2