Memoir on the Sea Stars Collected in the Caribbean Sea and The

University of South Florida Scholar Commons Integrative Biology Books Integrative Biology 1884 Memoir on the Sea Stars Collected in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico During the Expeditions of Dredging Made Under the Direction of Alexander Agassiz: A Translation of Mémoire sur les Étoiles de Mer Recueillies dans la Mer Des Antilles et le Golfe du Mexique Durant les Epéditions de Dragage Faites sous la Direction de M. Alexandre Agassiz Edmond Perrier John M. Lawrence University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/bin_books Recommended Citation Perrier, E. (2018). Memoir on the Sea Stars Collected in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico During the Expeditions of Dredging Made Under the Direction of Alexander Agassiz: A Translation of Mémoire sur les Étoiles de Mer Recueillies dans la Mer Des Antilles et le Golfe du Mexique Durant les Epéditions de Dragage Faites sous la Direction de M. Alexandre Agassiz (J. M. Lawrence, Trans.). Herizos Press, Tampa. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Integrative Biology at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Integrative Biology Books by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MEMOIR ON THE SEA STARS COLLECTED IN THE CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO DURING THE EXPEDITIONS OF DREDGNG MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF ALEXANDER AGASSIZ BY EDMOND PERRIER Professor administrator at the Musèm d’Histoire naturelle de Paris NOUVELLES ARCHIVES DU MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE DEUXIÈME SÉRIE TOME SIXIÈME 1884 Translated by John M. Lawrence MÉMOIRE SUR LES ÉTOILES DE MER RECUEILLIES DANS LA MER DES ANTILLES ET LE GOLFE DU MEXIQUE DURANT LES EPÉDITIONS DE DRAGAGE FAITES SOUS LA DIRECTION DE M. ALEXANDRE AGASSIZ PAR EDMOND PERRIER Professor-adminstrateur au Musèm d’Histoire naturelle de Paris NOUVELLES ARCHIVES DU MUSÉUM D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE DEUXIÈME SÉRIE TOME SIXIÈME 1884 Perrier, E. 1884. Memoir on the sea stars collected in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico during the expeditions of dredging made under the direction of Alexander Agassiz. Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d’histoire naturelle. Deuxième Série. Tome Sixième. 127–276. Translation © 2018. John M. Lawrence. Herizos Press. Tampa, Florida. Jean Octave Edmond Perrier (9 May 1844 – 31 July 1921) He studied sciences at the École Normale Supérieure, where he took classes in zoology from Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers He was a schoolteacher for three years at a college. In 1869 he obtained his doctorate in natural sciences. In 1876 he attained the chair of Natural History (mollusks, worms and zoophytes) at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. In 1879 became chairman of the Société zoologique de France. Alexander Emanuel Agassiz was born at Neuchatel, Switzerland, December 17, 1835. He came to the United States to join his father, Louis Agassiz, when he was thirteen years old. Among his other activities, he was director of the scientific staff of the United States Coast Survey steamer "Blake". He made three cruises in the Blake in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and along the lower east coast of the United States. Agassiz died March 27, 1910. USC&GS George S. Blake, in service 1874-1905. It was named after United States Naval Academy Superintendent George S. Blake. George S. Blake, a steam and sail schooner, was built in 1874 with dimensions of 148 feet 0 inches (45.11 m) length with 26 feet 6 inches (8.08 m) beam and draft of 11 feet 8 inches (3.56 m). The Blake Plateau lies in the western Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern United States coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. It is named for the Blake that first used steel cable for oceanographic operations in deep-ocean and Gulf Stream exploration. TRANSLATOR’S NOTE Perrier used stellerides for the asteroids. I have translated “stelleride” as “asteroid” except for taxonomic names, e.g., “Stelleridæ Forcipulatæ”. There are errors, inconsistencies in format, spellings and use of terms, incorrect use of italics, and capitalization of Perrier’s taxonomic terms. For example: In the list of species collected at the stations, Station 26 appears twice. In the list of species collected by depth, specimens collected at 316 fathoms are in the category of specimens collected from 400 to 500 fathoms. For Pteraster caribbœus, Perrier gives: “R = 30 mm; R = 15 mm; r = 2 r”. In plate II, Perrier gives the author of the new species as T. P., not E. P. Zoroaster Sigsbei and Zoroaster Sigsbeei. Anthenoides and Anthenoïdes. Perrieir refers to ambulacral plates and adambulacral plates. “Ambulacral” is often used when the context indicates the word should be “adambulacral.”. This results in incongruities: “Ambulacral spines arranged in two rows, equal between them. In front of this double row is a double row of small straight pedicellariae, emerging from the bottom of the ambulacral groove.” The context indicates this should read “Adambulacral spines arranged in two rows….” Asterias angulosa; “In the dried specimen that is our type, the spines of the internal row are inclined toward the ambulacral groove. The spines of the internal row are to the contrary inclined toward the ventral surface of the arms.” The context indicates this should read “In the dried specimen that is our type, the spines of the internal row are inclined toward the ambulacral groove. The spines of the external row are to the contrary inclined toward the ventral surface of the arms.” I have not changed these or other similar instances. The taxonomy is understandably obsolete. I thank Michel Jangoux for assistance with some of the more curious and difficult of Perrier’s terms. MEMOIR ON THE SEA STARS COLLECTED IN THE CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO DURING THE DREDGING EXPEDITIONS MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF ALEXANDER AGASSIZ BY EDMOND PERRIER Professor-adminstrator at the Museum of Natural History of Paris INTRODUCTION — GENERAL RESULTS This purpose of this work is to make known the asteroids collected by Alexander Agassiz during the dredging expeditions done in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico by the U.S. Steamer Blake. Alexander Agassiz has kindly conferred to me the study of these animals to which I prepared a long and detailed revision of the asteroids of the Museum that we published in 1875 and 18761. Alexander Agassiz has, in addition, authorized keeping duplicates of the specimens collected for the collections of the Museum of Paris. Our first word in writing this memoir must be an expression of deep recognition to the tireless scientist who thus asked us to take a double share of this precious collection he has made. 1 Archives de Zoologie expérimentale, V. IV, 1875 and V, 1876 and reprinted in one volume of 384 pages. The first Blake expedition was commanded by First Lieutenant Sigsbee. The investigations made from December 1877 to March 1878 extended from Key West to Havana, from Havana towards the west, the length of the north coast of Cuba, from Key West to Tortugas, from the extreme north of the Yucatan bank to Cape Catoche, to Cape San Antonio and, towards the north, to the mouth of the Mississippi. In the second expedition that lasted nearly as long as that of the first, from December 1878 to March 1879, the Blake had First Lieutenant Barthlett as commander. Leaving Key West, the expedition went toward Havana to reach Jamaica by the Bahama Channel, the Windward Passage. Then to Saint Thomas, along the south coast of Haiti and Puerto Rico. Leaving Saint Thomas, the Blake visited Santa Cruz, the Saba bank, Monteserrat, Saint Kitts, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Grenada, to dredge to a depth of up to 100 fathoms2, along the Trinity to return to Saint Vincentt and end operations at Barbados. During these two long cruises, 289 dredges were made, to depths varying from 14 to 2,412 fathoms. It was impossible that the results of such a campaign would not be remarkable. For the sea stars along, the dredges collected a total of 54 species of which 46 are new. At the moment when the investigations of Alexander Agassiz began, the class of asteroids had only 450 species. Today, the number of known species is nearly 500. It is nearly a tenth that the investigations of the American scientists have increased the numbers of the class. Until now, the region explored by Alexander Agassiz had collected 27 species of asteroids, most along the coast. The 46 new species that we will enumerate later, increases the number to 73. This number is triple, and we can say that the echinoderm fauna of the deep regions is, for the same region, incomparably richer and more varied than that of the coast. The importance of this result appears still greater if we consider that, among the new species, a large number established unexpected relations between groups that seemed until now completely separated, while others provide interesting documentation on the general morphology of echinoderms. Among the collected species, those that predominate in a decisive way belong to the families GONIASTERIDÆ and ARCHASTERIDÆ, i.e., to families that up until now, appeared to have especially prospered during the Cretaceous. This predominance is principally marked when we consider not only the number of species collected but especially the number of individuals taken per dredge. It is in the hundreds of individuals collected of one of the new species of Archaster, Archaster mirabilis. We can state, at the same time, that the variability of this species is extreme. We find Archaster mirabilis in the most diverse conditions at depths from 56 to 1,920 fathoms Many species are difficult to place in the old generic divisions.

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