Intro 
Species 
Specimens 
Distribution 
Checklist 
Sources 
Log in 

Porifera news

Two new sponges from the Nazca Desventuradas Marine Park (SE Pacific)

Added on 2025-07-04 04:06:18 by Hajdu, Eduardo
Fernandez, J.C.C.; Zapata-Hernández, G.; Sellanes, J.; Hajdu, E. (2025) Description of two new species of sponges (Demospongiae, Porifera) from the Nazca Desventuradas Marine Park and overview on diversity and biogeography of poriferans in oceanic islands of the SE Pacific. Zootaxa, 5659 (3): 301-334.
The Desventuradas Islands Archipelago is located within the Nazca Desventuradas Marine Park (South East Pacific). The latter is the world’s second-largest no-take marine zone, but only two sponge species have been known from there, which somehow reflects the current low knowledge of the diversity about marine sponges in the southeast Pacific region. In this study, two new species from Desventuradas Islands (20 m depth) are described. Hemimycale smaragdina sp. nov. constitutes the fourth record of Hemimycale of the entire Pacific Ocean, while Spongia (Heterofibria) nazcaensis sp. nov. is the first record of this genus in the SE Pacific. The latter is also recorded in Rapa Nui (Easter Island, 9.7 m depth), nearly 3,000 km west of its type locality. Both new species are compared with their respective congeners and can be differentiated by the combination of external and internal characters. Sponges from Rapa Nui, the Juan Fernández and Desventuradas Islands Archipelagos, as well as other Pacific oceanic marine areas were compiled here. Although several species from distant areas such as Indian Ocean, Indo-Pacific region, Antarctic, Atlantic and even the Mediterranean Sea are present in the evaluated oceanic areas, we observe high endemism in Rapa Nui and Juan Fernández, ca. 50%. Desventuradas Islands is still a locality with lower knowledge about its sponge diversity (currently four species) and a figure of its real endemism is hard to assess at this time. Most part of non-endemic species in Juan Fernández comes from the South American Pacific coast, but the ones in Rapa Nui come from the Indo-Pacific region / Indian Ocean and other distant areas. Although some patterns can be observed, the low knowledge about sponge diversity from these and other Pacific oceanic areas still limits comprehensive faunal affinities and biogeographical scenarios.

Link: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5659.3.1



[Overview] [Login]


Website and databases developed and hosted by VLIZ · Page generated 2025-08-09 · contact: Nicole de Voogd