Are the deep-sea faunas of the north and south Atlantic connected? a study based on the taxonomy of caudofoveate aplacophorans (Mollusca)

• Grant number: 18/17718-5
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): March 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Flávio Dias Passos
• Grantee: Marcel Sabino Miranda
• Supervisor abroad: Ellen e Strong
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Local de pesquisa : Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/01081-5 - Caudofoveta (Mollusca, Aplacophora) from Brazilian Northeast: taxnomy, distribution and ecological aspects, BP.DR

Abstract

Caudofoveata is an important component of the deep-sea benthos, being one of the dominant groups in some locations, and having species with extensive distributions. Despite this importance, the Caudofoveata are little known, especially regarding the diversity and distribution patterns of its species from the South Atlantic Ocean. Recently, through the analysis of samples collected in the Brazilian Northeastern coast, about 13 species were obtained and are currently under studies. Some of them are very similar with species from USA, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean seas, and this similarity triggered a necessity of a comparison among them, by a detailed examination of the material deposited in the National Museum of Natural History (USNM), including the types of most species described from the North Atlantic. Thus, by this comparison this BEPE-DR proposal aims to evaluate the conectivity between the Northwestern and Southwestern Atlantic of caudofoveate aplacophoran faunas, through the description of new occurrences from Brazil, and also the new, up to now unknown new species. The material from the USNM collection will be analyzed from the external morphology, as well as by the observation of the many detailed characters of the oral disc, radula and sclerites through the scanning electron microscopy. For the same species found in the Brazilian and in the north Atlantic, distribution models will be applied to evaluate if these can occur in other areas. This study will provide valuable information about the taxonomy and geographical distributions of an important and little known group from the deep sea benthic fauna.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MIRANDA, MARCEL S.; STRONG, ELLEN E.; PASSOS, FLAVIO D. Type specimens of Caudofoveata (Mollusca, Aplacophora) in the molluscan collections of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Zootaxa, v. 4895, n. 4, p. 581-593, DEC 17 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

HERNAEZ, PATRICIO; MIRANDA, MARCEL S.; TAVARES, MARCOS. A new species of Biffarius Manning & Felder, 1991 (Decapoda: Axiidea: Callianassidae) from the intertidal coast of northeastern Brazil. Zootaxa, v. 4759, n. 4, p. 575-583, APR 6 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.