Distribution and dispersal of the genusAstrostoleFisher, 1923 (Echinodermata: Asteroidea)

Abstract

Abstract Records of the geographical distribution of the genus Astrostole are scattered, and some have been contradictory. A survey of the literature and examination of collections at the Australian Museum, National Museum of New Zealand, and New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, DSIR, have made a fuller and more detailed account of the geographical distribution of the genus possible. The known distribution is extensively modified by the new records presented. The New Zealand species, A. scabra, is shown to have a wide distribution in local waters. The geographical and temporal origin of the genus inferred by Fell is not disputed, but the supposed dispersal agency, West Wind Drift, is shown to have been incapable of producing the observed pattern. The interaction between a west to east current north of the sub-tropical convergence, an eastern Pacific surface gyre, and the Peru Coastal Current, is suggested as a more rational explanation of the distribution of the genus.