A New Species of Horseshoe Worm Discovered in Japan After a 62 Year Gap 4 April 2014

Home , Phoronis hippocrepia, Phoronis psammophila

A new species of horseshoe worm discovered in Japan after a 62 year gap 4 April 2014

Phoronis vancouverensis that has long been disputed.

This is Phoronis emigi, preserved in formalin. Credit: Dr. Masato Hirose

The horseshoe worm is a worm-like marine invertebrate inhabiting both hard and soft substrates such as rock, bivalve shells, and sandy bottom. The name "horseshoe" refers to the U- shaped crown of tentacles which is called "lophophore." Horseshoe worms comprise a small This is a living Phoronis ijimai, extending its lophophore. phylum Phoronida, which contains only ten species Credit: Dr. Masato Hirose. decorating the bottom of the oceans.

The new species Phoronis emigi, the eleventh member of the group described in the open access "It is necessary to use both internal anatomy and journal ZooKeys, comes after a long 62 year gap molecular data for reveal the global diversity of of new discoveries in the phylum. It is unique in the horseshoe worm. The known phoronid diversity still number and arrangement of body-wall muscle remains low, with all specimens reported from bundles and the position of the nephridia which is limited habitats and the localities by the limited the excretory organ of some invertebrates. The reports. Investigations at new localities or habitats new species is morphologically similar to sand- may yield additional species in the future", explains dwelling species Phoronis psammophila and it is Dr Masato Hirose, Atmosphere and Ocean also closely related to Phoronis hippocrepia, which Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Japan. inhabits hard substrate.

The morphology of the topotypes for Phoronis More information: Hirose M, Fukiage R, Katoh T, ijimai is also described in this study after 117 years Kajihara H (2014) Description and molecular since its original description. The combination of a phylogeny of a new species of Phoronis detailed observation of the internal morphologies (Phoronida) from Japan, with a redescription of and the molecular phylogenetic analyses including topotypes of P. ijimai Oka, 1897. ZooKeys 398: 1. the topotypes ensure a synonymy between P. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.398.5176 ijimai and the northeastern pacific species

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