A remarkable pogonophoran from a desalted shallow near the mouth of the Yenisey River in the Kara Sea, with the description of a new species of the genus Galathealinum (Annelida: Pogonophora: Frenulata)

Abstract

A new species of Pogonophora obtained from one station at a depth of 25 m from near the Dikson Island in the Kara Sea is described. Galathealinum karaense sp. nov. is one of the largest pogonophorans, the first known representative of the rare genus Galathealinum Kirkegaard, 1956 in the Eurasian part of the Arctic Ocean and a highly unusual finding for the desalted shallow of the Yenisey Gulf. Several characters occurring in the new species are rare or unique among the congeners: under-developed, hardly discernible frills on the tube segments, extremely thin felted fibres in the external layer of the tube, and very faintly separated papillae in the anterior part of the trunk. Morphological characters useful in distinguishing species within the genus Galathealinum are defined and summarised in a table. Diagnosis of the genus Galathealinum is emended and supplemented by new characters. Additionally, three taxonomic keys are provided to the species of Galathealinum and to the known species of the Arctic pogonophorans using either animals or their empty tubes only, with the brief zoogeographical information on each Arctic species.