Distribusieng
Distribution: Western North Atlantic, East Canada to Cape Hatteras; Boreal Eastern Atlantic, northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge; Lusitanian-Mediterranean (Watling & Auster 2005); Norway to Nova Scotia, including Faroes Islands, Iceland and Greenland, 1330 m (Tendal 1992); off Crozet Islands, Indian Ocean (46 ° 05 ’ – 46 ° 24.1 ’ S, 49 ° 37.0 ’ – 50 ° 37.1 ’ E, 140 – 270 m) (Grasshoff 1979; D’Ambrosio et al. 1984); Aleutian Islands (Heifetz et al. 2005); Makarov Bay, Iturup Island, Sea of Okhotsk (Nedashkovskaya et al. 2005); Southern California (52 ° 17 ’ – 52 ° 22 ’ N, 160 ° 40 ’ – 160 ° 34 ’ E, 659 – 798 m), New Zealand (33 ° 55 ’ 36 ” S – 52 ° 17 ’ 22 ” S, 159 ° 40 ’ 00 – 177 ° 54 ’ 30 ” E, 659 – 1525 m) (Sánchez 2005); Off Patagonia and Malvinas Islands (40 ° 57 ’ – 54 ° 38 ’ S, 56 ° 52 ’ – 63 ° 00 ’ W, 340 – 1000 m) (Grasshoff 1979); Burdwood bank (54 ° 31´S, 62 ° 11´W, 330 m) (as Paragorgia sp.) (Auscavitch & Waller 2017); Drake Passage, 57 ° 04´S, 67 ° 30´W, 1400 m (as Paragorgia sp.) (Waller & Robinson 2011); off Staten Island (608 m) (present study).
Sumber: Checklist of Benthic Cnidaria in the SW Atlantic Ocean (54 ºS- 56 ºS)
Deskripsieng
Description. Robust treelike colonies up to several meters in height with bubblelike concentrations of autozooids (Fig. 6). Complete specimens exhibiting dense and regular accumulations of autozooid nodules or bulbs on distal or lateral branches, whereas the distal main stem and branches are usually without nodules (Fig. 6 A). Internodular surface with numerous and uniformly distributed tiny siphonozooid apertures giving the colony a granular texture (Fig. 6 D). Medulla perforated by 5 – 7 main stem canals in terminal branches, surrounded by both red and colorless spindles; outer medulla with colorless sclerites and numerous smaller canals. Polyps completely retracted and enclosed within the calicular (small conical protuberance of the nodule) cortex. Tentacle sclerites are blunt, stubby ovals up to 0.1 mm (Figs. 7 A – B, 8 A – B), commonly found in several Paragorgia spp. (Bayer, 1993), but some of them pointed like a spindle (Fig. 8 A). They have conical ornaments usually arranged bipolarly with a smooth neck, and at the surface exhibit a granular appearance due to microcrystal calcite tips. Radiate sclerites (6 radiate) from the surface are small, averaging 0.043 mm length in two different specimens, exhibiting low variation (0.004 SD, n = 10, NIWA 3308; 0.002 SD, n = 10, NIWA Z 10920). Radiates 1.3 times longer than wide, averaging 0.03 mm in width (0.001 SD, n = 10, NIWA 3308; 0.002 SD, n = 10, Z 10920) also occur. The rays are ornamented with distinctive markings (see diagnostic character) and the surface between is smooth. Subsurface rich in diverse radiates and intermediate forms between radiate and spindle attaining larger sizes (Figs. 7 F, 8 E). Medulla sclerites long, slim spindles up to 0.5 mm length with irregular projections, some quite prominent (up to 0.02 mm) and bifurcated (Figs. 7 E, 8 F). Occasionally slightly curved, intermediate forms (short and long ornamented spindles) present between the medulla and subsurface (see Grasshoff, 1979). Morphological variation. Whereas sclerites and ultrastructure variation has been usually low among many specimens and geographical localities (e. g., Grasshoff, 1979), colonial features seem to have a great deal of variation. One New Zealand specimen (NIWA Z 9566) had unusually large siphonozooids and autozooids with eight grooved notches in the aperture not present in the rest of the material, but no scleritic differences were found. Most New Zealand specimens were red except a few paler (pink) specimens. The size of the autozooid nodules was another factor of variation. Some specimens had nodules of less than 20 mm in diameter (e. g., Fig. 6 A – B) and some had up to 30 mm (Fig. 6 C – D), the latter corresponding to the largest specimens from the NIWA collection. However, only one specimen of this morphotype is fairly complete and no correlation with colony size can be made. Similar variation has been recorded in northern latitudes including the presence of white individuals (Tendal 1992), which have not been found in New Zealand.
