TY - JOUR

T1 - Monsters in the dark

T2 - systematics and biogeography of the stygobitic genus Godzillius (Crustacea: Remipedia) from the Lucayan Archipelago

AU - Ballou, Lauren

AU - Iliffe, Thomas M.

AU - Kakuk, Brian

AU - Gonzalez, Brett C.

AU - Osborn, Karen J.

AU - Worsaae, Katrine

AU - Meland, Kenneth

AU - Broad, Kenneth

AU - Bracken-Grissom, Heather

AU - Olesen, Jørgen

N1 - Funding Information: Field work was supported by the Bahamas Cave Research Foundation (to BK, KB, TI) for the Andros expedition which resulted in the collection of the new remipede species; Abaco (Bahamas) collecting was partly funded by the Schander Memorial Fund (to KM) and the Carlsberg Foundation (to JO); Turks and Caicos collecting was funded by the Smithsonian Global Genome Initiative ? Rolling Awards Program (GGI-2019-Rolling-214 to KJO) and by the Peter Buck Fellowship Program (to BCG). Many thanks to the Bahamas Department of Marine Resources for the research permit. Special thanks to the Turks and Caicos Islands Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) ? Ministry of Tourism, Environment, Heritage, Culture & Gaming for their willingness to grant collection and export permits to our team. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. (M1703014). In addition, many thanks to the Cave Conservancy Foundation for providing funding support for LB. This is contribution #248 from the Division of Coastlines and Oceans in the Institute of Environment at Florida International University. Last, but certainly not least, we wish to express our appreciation to Stefan Koenemann for his extensive and important work on Remipedia. Funding Information: Named for Robert Lourie whose financial support of the Bahamas Caves Research Foundation contributes to furthering cave and blue hole related research in the Bahamas. The taxonomic description and underlying molecular justification for Godzillius louriei sp. nov. was prepared by LB, HBG, and JO, who are thus responsible for making the specific name louriei available. Funding Information: Field work was supported by the Bahamas Cave Research Foundation (to BK, KB, TI) for the Andros expedition which resulted in the collection of the new remipede species; Abaco (Bahamas) collecting was partly funded by the Schander Memorial Fund (to KM) and the Carlsberg Foundation (to JO); Turks and Caicos collecting was funded by the Smithsonian Global Genome Initiative – Rolling Awards Program (GGI-2019-Rolling-214 to KJO) and by the Peter Buck Fellowship Program (to BCG). Many thanks to the Bahamas Department of Marine Resources for the research permit. Special thanks to the Turks and Caicos Islands Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) – Ministry of Tourism, Environment, Heritage, Culture & Gaming for their willingness to grant collection and export permits to our team. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. (M1703014). In addition, many thanks to the Cave Conservancy Foundation for providing funding support for LB. This is contribution #248 from the Division of Coastlines and Oceans in the Institute of Environment at Florida International University. Last, but certainly not least, we wish to express our appreciation to Stefan Koenemann for his extensive and important work on Remipedia. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. All rights reserved.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Remipedia is a stygobitic group commonly associated with coastal anchialine caves. This class consists of 12 genera, ten of which are found within the Lucayan Archipelago. Herein, we describe a new species within the genus Godzillius from Conch Sound Blue Hole, North Andros Island, Bahamas. Godzillius louriei sp. nov. is the third known remipede observed from a subseafloor marine cave, and the first from the Godzilliidae. Remipedes dwell within notoriously difficult to access cave habitats and thus integrative and comprehensive systematic studies at family or genus level are often absent in the literature. In this study, all species of Godzillius are compared using morphological and molecular approaches. Specifically, the feeding appendages of G. louriei sp. nov., G. fuchsi Gonzalez, Singpiel & Schlagner, 2013 and G. robustus Schram, Yager & Emerson, 1986 were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Species of Godzillius are identified based on the spines of maxilla 1 segment 4 and by the denticles on the lacinia mobilis of the left mandible. A molecular phylogeny using the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and nuclear histone 3 genes recovered G. louriei sp. nov. within the Godzillius clade and 16S genetic distances revealed a 13–15% difference between species of Godzillius.

AB - Remipedia is a stygobitic group commonly associated with coastal anchialine caves. This class consists of 12 genera, ten of which are found within the Lucayan Archipelago. Herein, we describe a new species within the genus Godzillius from Conch Sound Blue Hole, North Andros Island, Bahamas. Godzillius louriei sp. nov. is the third known remipede observed from a subseafloor marine cave, and the first from the Godzilliidae. Remipedes dwell within notoriously difficult to access cave habitats and thus integrative and comprehensive systematic studies at family or genus level are often absent in the literature. In this study, all species of Godzillius are compared using morphological and molecular approaches. Specifically, the feeding appendages of G. louriei sp. nov., G. fuchsi Gonzalez, Singpiel & Schlagner, 2013 and G. robustus Schram, Yager & Emerson, 1986 were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Species of Godzillius are identified based on the spines of maxilla 1 segment 4 and by the denticles on the lacinia mobilis of the left mandible. A molecular phylogeny using the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and nuclear histone 3 genes recovered G. louriei sp. nov. within the Godzillius clade and 16S genetic distances revealed a 13–15% difference between species of Godzillius.

KW - Anchialine

KW - Cave

KW - New species

KW - Phylogeny

U2 - 10.5852/ejt.2021.751.1383

DO - 10.5852/ejt.2021.751.1383

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85108221431

VL - 751

SP - 115

EP - 139

JO - European Journal of Taxonomy

JF - European Journal of Taxonomy

SN - 2118-9773

ER -