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Revisiting the 1964 Archimède bathyscaphe dive to 7300 m in the Puerto Rico trench, abundance of an elasipodid holothurian Peniagone sp. and a resolution to the identity of the ‘Puerto Rican snailfish’
Jamieson, A.J.; Linley, T.D.; Stewart, H.A.; Nargeolet, P.-H.; Vescovo, V. (2020). Revisiting the 1964 Archimède bathyscaphe dive to 7300 m in the Puerto Rico trench, abundance of an elasipodid holothurian Peniagone sp. and a resolution to the identity of the ‘Puerto Rican snailfish’. Deep-Sea Res., Part 1, Oceanogr. Res. Pap. 162: 103336. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2020.103336
In: Deep-Sea Research, Part I. Oceanographic Research Papers. Elsevier: Oxford. ISSN 0967-0637; e-ISSN 1879-0119, more
Peer reviewed article  

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Keywords
    Holothuroidea [WoRMS]; Liparidae Gill, 1861 [WoRMS]; Peniagone Théel, 1882 [WoRMS]
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    Liparidae; Holothurians; Peniagone; Hadal zone; Atlantic ocean; Submersible

Authors  Top 
  • Jamieson, A.J., more
  • Linley, T.D.
  • Stewart, H.A.
  • Nargeolet, P.-H.
  • Vescovo, V.

Abstract
    The first direct observations of the diversity and density of benthic epifauna from hadal depths was reported in 1965 from depths of 7300 m in the Puerto Rico Trench. The most striking part of the report from was an account of observing 200 snailfish (Liparidae) during a one mile transect by the bathyscaphe Archimède - an extraordinarily high-density of fish for hadal depths. In 2019 the submersible DSV Limiting Factor revisited the exact same site in the Puerto Rico Trench. No snailfish were observed. However, a large number of the holothurian Peniagone sp. were seen in a density similar to that reported originally for the snailfish. The holothurian has a similar exterior colour, texture and morphology to the snailfish. It is concluded that the reported hadal snailfish of the Puerto Rico Trench was in fact a misidentification of the holothurian Peniagone sp.

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