Abstract
We report herein the occurrence of the infraorder Polychelida in Potiguar Basin, northeastern Brazil. Specimens were collected by the project Avaliacao da Biota Bentonica e Planctonica na porcao offshore das Bacias Potiguar e Ceara, developed by the Brazilian Oil Company (PETROBRAS). Three species were recorded for the first time in this region: Pentacheles validus A. Milne-Edwards, 1880, Polycheles typhlops Heller, 1862, and Stereomastis sculpta (Smith, 1880) at 2000 m, 400 m and 2057 m depth, respectively. The Brazilian deep-sea floor remains poorly known, but progress has been made as a result of collections obtained by oceanographic expeditions and research projects developed by PETROBRAS in Campos Basin (Rio de Janeiro) and Potiguar Basin (Rio Grande do Norte), expanding the knowledge of the distribution area of Polychelidae in Brazilian deep sea waters.
Highlights
Deep-sea blind lobsters belong to the infraorder Polychelida Scholtz and Richter, 1995
In Brazil, in a general way, deep sea fauna remains poorly known, but progress has been made as a result of collections obtained by oceanographic expeditions and research projects developed by PETROBRAS in Campos Basin (Rio de Janeiro) and Potiguar Basin (Rio Grande do Norte), raising the number of crustaceans species known from Brazilian waters
We report the occurrence of three Polychelidae species in Potiguar Basin, northeastern Brazil, expanding the knowledge of the distribution area of Polychelidae in Brazilian deep sea waters
Summary
Deep-sea blind lobsters belong to the infraorder Polychelida Scholtz and Richter, 1995 These uncommon crustaceans are characterized by the presence of chelate pereiopods 1–4 (sometimes pereiopod 5) and fixed and rudimentary eye-stalk in extant species (Galil, 2000). Polychelids were most morphologically diverse during Mesozoic (Audo et al, 2014), with five families recognized: Eryonidae De Haan, 1841, Coleiidae Van Straelen, 1924, Tetrachelidae Beurlen, 1930 and Polychelidae Wood-Mason, 1874 The latter family is the only extant and currently comprises about 38 species distributed in six genera (Ahyong, 2009; De Grave et al, 2009; Chan, 2010). We report the occurrence of three Polychelidae species in Potiguar Basin, northeastern Brazil, expanding the knowledge of the distribution area of Polychelidae in Brazilian deep sea waters
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