Abstract
The recently described deep-sea pennatulacean genus Porcupinella was previously known only by the type species, Porcupinella profunda from the equatorial eastern Atlantic to the eastern North Atlantic Ocean. New data is provided on morphology, distribution, bathymetry, and related taxa. A second species is added here as well – a new species is described from the Tasman Sea in the southwestern Pacific. The new species, Porcupinella tasmanica, is distinguished from P. profunda by its distinctive hook-shaped growth form, laterally compressed dorsal keel, and differing regions that are occupied by siphonozooids. A key to the species of the deep-sea pennatulacean family Chunellidae is included based on comparative morphology.
Highlights
Pennatulaceans or sea pens are a distinctive group of octocoral cnidarians distributed in all oceans of the globe and range in depth from sea level to least 6200 m (Williams 2019)
Anatomy, ecology, and biogeography have been treated in a variety of publications (Williams 1990, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2011)
All known material representing the new species was collected by beam trawl between 4114 and 4139 m off the coast of northeast Tasmania in 2017, and is deposited in the invertebrate zoology collection of the California Academy of Sciences
Summary
Pennatulaceans or sea pens are a distinctive group of octocoral cnidarians distributed in all oceans of the globe and range in depth from sea level to least 6200 m (Williams 2019). Anatomy, ecology, and biogeography have been treated in a variety of publications (Williams 1990, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2011). Of the thirty-seven extant genera of pennatulaceans known, seven of these have been recorded from depths greater than 3000 m (Williams 2019)
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