Five new species of black coral (Anthozoa; Antipatharia) from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, Australia

Jeremy Horowitz; Dennis Opresko; Tina N Molodtsova; Tina N Molodtsova; Robin J Beaman; Peter F Cowman; Tom C L Bridge

doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5213.1.1

Five new species of black coral (Anthozoa; Antipatharia) from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, Australia

Zootaxa. 2022 Nov 23;5213(1):1-35. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5213.1.1.

Authors

Jeremy Horowitz¹, Dennis Opresko², Tina N Molodtsova³, Tina N Molodtsova³, Robin J Beaman⁴, Peter F Cowman⁵, Tom C L Bridge⁶

Affiliations

¹ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, 101 Angus Smith Drive, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia. 2 Biodiversity and Geosciences Program, Museum of Tropical Queensland, Queensland Museum, 70-102 Flinders St, Townsville, QLD, 4810, Australia. . jeremy.horowitz@my.jcu.edu.au.
² Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th St. & Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20560 USA. . dmopresko@hotmail.com.
³ P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, 36 Nakhimovsky prt, Moscow, 117997, Russian Federation . tina@ocean.ru.
⁴ College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia . robin.beaman@jcu.edu.au.
⁵ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, 101 Angus Smith Drive, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia. 2 Biodiversity and Geosciences Program, Museum of Tropical Queensland, Queensland Museum, 70-102 Flinders St, Townsville, QLD, 4810, Australia. Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, Molecular and Cell Biology, James Cook University, 101 Angus Smith Drive, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia. peter.cowman@qm.qld.gov.au.
⁶ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, 101 Angus Smith Drive, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia. 2 Biodiversity and Geosciences Program, Museum of Tropical Queensland, Queensland Museum, 70-102 Flinders St, Townsville, QLD, 4810, Australia. . tom.bridge@qm.qld.gov.au.

PMID: 37044955
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5213.1.1

Abstract

We describe five new species of black corals from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, collected at depths ranging from 14 to 789 m: two in the family Antipathidae (Antipathes falkorae sp. nov. and Antipathes morrisi sp. nov.), two in the family Aphanipathidae (Aphanipathes flailum sp. nov. and Rhipidipathes helae sp. nov.), and one in the family Cladopathidae (Hexapathes bikofskii sp. nov.). We also present a phylogeny of 80 black corals reconstructed from a target capture dataset of ultraconserved elements and exons, to show the systematic relationships among new and nominal species. This phylogeny also represents a backbone for future species descriptions and research into the evolutionary history of the Antipatharia.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anthozoa* / genetics
Australia
Coral Reefs
Phylogeny