New carnivorous sponges from the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia collected by ROV from the RV FALKOR

Merrick Ekins; John N A Hooper

doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5293.3.2

New carnivorous sponges from the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia collected by ROV from the RV FALKOR

Zootaxa. 2023 May 23;5293(3):435-471. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5293.3.2.

Authors

Merrick Ekins¹, John N A Hooper²

Affiliations

¹ Queensland Museum; PO Box 3300; South Brisbane 4101; Brisbane; Queensland; Australia School of Biological Sciences; University of Queensland; St Lucia; Queensland; 4072 Australia Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery; Griffith University; Brisbane 4111; Queensland; Australia. m.ekins@qm.qld.gov.au.
² Queensland Museum; PO Box 3300; South Brisbane 4101; Brisbane; Queensland; Australia School of Biological Sciences; University of Queensland; St Lucia; Queensland; 4072 Australia Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery; Griffith University; Brisbane 4111; Queensland; Australia. john.hooper@qm.qld.gov.au.

PMID: 37518474
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5293.3.2

Abstract

This research presents three new species of carnivorous sponges from the family Cladorhizidae from the Great Barrier Reef, in Queensland, Australia: Abyssocladia falkor sp. nov., Abyssocladia jeanvaceleti sp. nov. and Axoniderma wanda sp. nov. They were collected by ROV during the expedition FK200802-Seamounts, Canyons & Reefs of the Coral Sea Cruise on the RV Falkor from the Schmidt Ocean Institute. In addition, the ROV collection of two complete specimens enabled the redescription of two other Australian species of carnivorous sponge (Chondrocladia (Chondrocladia) zygainadentonis Ekins et al., 2020a and Asbestopluma (Asbestopluma) maxisigma Ekins et al., 2020a), previously known from the East coast of Australia based on incomplete specimens.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anthozoa*
Australia
Carnivory
Coral Reefs
Expeditions*
Queensland