New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Endemic new cyclostome bryozoans from Spirits Bay, a New Zealand marine-biodiversity “hotspot”

Paul D. Taylor

Department of Palaeontology
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 5BD
United Kingdom
email: pdt@nhm.ac.uk

Dennis P. Gordon

National Centre for Aquatic Biodiversity
and Biosecurity
National Institute of Water
 and Atmospheric Research Limited
P.O. Box 14 901
Kilbirnie, Wellington
New Zealand
email: d.gordon@niwa.co.nz

Abstract   Two notable species of erect cyclostome bryozoans from a nearshore benthic fauna off Spirits Bay, northernmost New Zealand, are described here for the first time. The first, Spiritopora perplexa gen. et sp. nov., is an endemic cerioporine-grade genus which is abundant in this area. Colonies are characterised by an unusual combination of fixed- and free-walled skeletal morphologies: autozooids forming the extensive encrusting colony bases are normally fixed-walled, whereas those forming the short, bifoliate erect branches are usually free-walled. The highly distinctive morphology of S. perplexa, very different from any other fossil or Recent cyclostome, together with its success in overgrowing competitors for space, makes its restricted geographical distribution puzzling and highlights the importance of conservation in this area now closed to trawling, Danish seining, and commercial scallop dredging. The second species, Calvetia osheai sp. nov., is less common, and has small, tree-like colonies. It is the third species assigned to this distinctive cancellate genus, previously known only from Recent of Tierra del Fuego and the Eocene of Antarctica.

Keywords  Bryozoa; Cyclostomata; new taxa; Spiritopora; Calvetia; endemism; skeletal morphology; conservation; New Zealand

M03014 Received 29 April 2003; accepted 27 June 2003; Published 5 August 2003
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2003, Vol. 37: 653-669
0028-8330/03/3703-0653 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2003

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