The Glypheidea is a group of lobster-like decapods that appeared in the Triassic and that was thought to be extinct until 1975, when a specimen of the species Neoglyphea inopinata was caught off the Philippines. More recently, in 2005, a specimen of another glypheid species, Laurentaeglyphea neocaledonica, was discovered near New Caledonia. Here, we construct a decapod molecular data set including the two extant glypheid species sequenced from eight nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Our study strongly shows that the two extant genera of glypheids cluster together, and further confirms the status of Glypheidea as a separate infraorder. Moreover the reptantian decapods are divided into two major groups, one including Brachyura, Anomura, and Axiidea, and the other including Astacidea, Polychelida, Achelata, and Glypheidea. Although commonly nicknamed 'Jurassic shrimps' and considered as 'living fossils', glypheids are therefore a derived decapod lineage. (C) 2010 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

EBISCO

The seamounts chain offers a set of fragmented habitats in which species with poor dispersive ability may undergo divergence in allopatry. Such a scenario may explain the endemism often described on seamounts. In gastropods, it is possible to infer the mode of development of a species from the morphology of its larval shell. Accordingly, we examine the population genetics of several caenogastropods from the Norfolk and Lord Howe seamounts (south-west Pacific) with contrasting modes of larval development. A prerequisite to our study was to clarify the taxonomic framework. The species delimitation was ruled using an integrative approach, based on both morphological and molecular evidence. Molecular data indicate an unexpected taxonomic diversity within the existing species names. Both the clarification of the taxonomic framework and the importance of the sampling effort allow us to confidently detect cryptic diversity and micro-endemism. These results are discussed in relation to the dispersive capacities of the organisms. (C) 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 100, 420-438.

CONCALIS, EBISCO, NORFOLK 1, NORFOLK 2, TERRASSES

The species of the genus Trachypenaeopsis (Crustacea, Decapoda, Penaeidae). Morphological and molecular approaches. The genus Trachypenaeopsis Burkenroad, 1934 has been known in the Indo-West Pacific region by two species, T richtersii (Miers, 1884), described from Mauritius and recorded afterwards as far as Indonesia, Japan, and Hawaii, and T minicoyensis Thomas, 1972, known only from the Laccadive Is. The present work shows that T minicoyensis is a synonym of T richtersii, that identifications of material from China, Taiwan, and Hawaii are erroneous and that these specimens are not morphologically distinguishable from the Atlantic species, T mobilispinis (Rathbun, 1915), described from the West Indies. DNA analyses show that Pacific specimens other than T. richtersii belong to one species: genetic divergence is not higher than 2.2%, while the genetic distance between Pacific and Atlantic populations averages 3.6%. The absence of morphological differences between these two sets of populations indicates that the populations are becoming genetically different but cannot yet be considered separate species. The colour patterns of the Atlantic and Pacific specimens have not been determined so it is possible that these Populations could eventually be shown to represent separate sibling species.

BENTHEDI, LIFOU 2000, MUSORSTOM 9

The first zoeal stages of the galatheids Neonida grandis, Agononida squamosa and Munida javieri, and the chirostylids Eumunida annulosa and E. capillata are described and illustrated from laboratory-hatched material obtained from ovigerous females collected from south western Pacific. The morphologies of the first zoeae are compared with the same larval stage of other known anomuran species. The larval characters of Agononida squamosa and Neonida grandis are similar to those described for Agononida incerta. Munida javieri exhibits features not present in other described species of Munida such as the setation of the endopod of the maxillule and the antennal morphology. Eumunida annulosa and E. capillata do not show abbreviated development as in other described chirostylids such as Uroptychus and Gastroptychus, and its larval morphology is equivalent to the first stage of galatheid zoeae. However, many morphological characters of E umunida species are typically pagurid, such as the two terminal plumose setae of the antennal endopod, the three-segmented endopod of the maxillule, the posterior margin of the carapace without spines, and the scaphognathite with 5 plumose setae and without a posterior lobe.

BOA1, NORFOLK 2

We analyzed the distribution patterns of the galatheid squat lobsters (Crustacea, Decapoda, Galatheidae) of the Pacific Ocean. We used the presence/absence data of 402 species along the continental slope and continental rise (200-2000 m) obtained from 54 cruises carried out in areas around the Philippines, Indonesia, Solomon, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia. The total number of stations was ca. 3200. We also used published data from other expeditions carried out in the Pacific waters, and from an exhaustive search of ca. 600 papers on the taxonomy and biogeography of Pacific species. We studied the existence of biogeographic provinces using multivariate analyses, and present data on latitudinal and longitudinal patterns of species richness, rate of endemism and the relationship between body sizes with the size of the geographic ranges. Latitudinal species richness along the Western and Eastern Pacific exhibited an increase from higher latitudes towards the Equator. Longitudinal species richness decreased considerably from the Western to the Central Pacific. Size frequency distribution for body size was strongly shifted toward small sizes and endemic species were significantly smaller than non-endemics. This study concludes that a clear separation exists between the moderately poor galatheid fauna of the Eastern Pacific and the rich Western and Central Pacific faunas. Our results also show that the highest numbers of squat lobsters are found in the Coral Sea (Solomon-Vanuatu-New Caledonia islands) and Indo-Malay-Philippines archipelago (IMPA). The distribution of endemism along the Pacific Ocean indicates that there are several major centres of diversity, e.g. Coral Sea, IMPA, New Zealand and French Polynesia. The high proportion of endemism in these areas suggests that they have evolved independently. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

AURORA 2007, AZTEQUE, BATHUS 1, BATHUS 2, BATHUS 3, BATHUS 4, BERYX 11, BERYX 2, BIOCAL, BIOGEOCAL, BOA0, BOA1, BORDAU 1, BORDAU 2, CHALCAL 1, CHALCAL 2, CONCALIS, CORAIL 2, EBISCO, HALIPRO 1, HALIPRO 2, KARUBAR, LAGON, LITHIST, MUSORSTOM 1, MUSORSTOM 10, MUSORSTOM 2, MUSORSTOM 3, MUSORSTOM 4, MUSORSTOM 5, MUSORSTOM 6, MUSORSTOM 7, MUSORSTOM 8, NORFOLK 1, NORFOLK 2, TERRASSES

Little is known of New Guinea's deep benthic communities. In fall 2010, the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, and University of Papua New Guinea spearheaded an international three-leg cruise, BioPapua, aimed at exploring the deep waters of eastern Papua New Guinea and its satellite islands. Special attention was given to faunal assemblages associated with sunken wood and decomposing vegetation as well as seamount summits and slopes. In this article, we review the information available on the deep ecosystems of Papua New Guinea and summarize preliminary results of the BioPapua cruise.

BIOPAPUA

BIOPAPUA, TERRASSES

The superfamily Conoidea is one of the most speciose groups of marine mollusks, with estimates of about 340 recent valid genera and subgenera, and 4000 named living species. Previous classifications were based on shell and anatomical characters, and clades and phylogenetic relationships are far from well assessed. Based on a dataset of ca. 100 terminal taxa belonging to 57 genera, information provided by fragments of one mitochondrial (COI) and three nuclear (28S, 18S and H3) genes is used to infer the first molecular phylogeny of this group. Analyses are performed on each gene independently as well as for a data matrix where all genes are concatenated, using Maximum Likelihood, Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian approaches. Several well-supported clades are defined and are only partly identifiable to currently recognized families and subfamilies. The nested sampling used in our study allows a discussion of the classification at various taxonomical levels, and several genera, subfamilies and families are found polyphyletic.

BOA1, EBISCO, NORFOLK 2, PANGLAO 2004, PANGLAO 2005, SALOMON 2, SANTO 2006

DNA sequences are currently used to propose primary hypotheses of species delimitation, especially when morphological variability is difficult to assess. In an integrative taxonomy framework, these hypotheses are then compared with other characters, such as morphology or geography, to produce robust species delimitations. For this purpose, the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene has been sequenced for almost 50 specimens of the genus Benthomangelia, a deep-sea marine gastropod genus, collected in the South-West Pacific. Five genetic groups, displaying low and high genetic distances respectively within and between groups, were defined. COI hypotheses were compared with both the results obtained with the independent nuclear 28S gene and with an elliptic Fourier analysis of the shape of the last whorl of the shell. 28S gene analysis confirmed the same well-supported groups as COI, and elliptic Fourier analysis identified several morphological characters that vary similarly to genetic variability. (C) 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 96, 696-708.

AURORA 2007, BOA1, PANGLAO 2004, PANGLAO 2005, SALOMON 2, SANTO 2006

Identifying life stages of species with complex life histories is problematic as species are often only known and/or described from a single stage. DNA barcoding has been touted as an important tool for linking life-history stages of the same species. To test the current efficacy of DNA barcodes for identifying unknown mollusk life stages, 24 marine gastropod egg capsules were collected off the Philippines in deep water and sequenced for partial fragments of the COI, 16S and 12S mitochondrial genes. Two egg capsules of known shallow-water Mediterranean species were used to calibrate the method. These sequences were compared to those available in GenBank and the Barcode of Life Database ( BOLD). Using COI sequences alone, only a single Mediterranean egg capsule was identified to species, and a single Philippine egg capsule was identified tentatively to genus; all other COI sequences recovered matches between 76% and 90% with sequences from BOLD and GenBank. Similarity-based identification using all three markers confirmed the Mediterranean specimens' identifications. A phylogenetic approach was also implemented to confirm similarity-based identifications and provide a higher-taxonomic identification when species-level identifications were not possible. Comparison of available GenBank sequences to the diversity curve of a well-sampled coral reef habitat in New Caledonia highlights the poor taxonomic coverage achieved at present in existing genetic databases, emphasizing the need to develop DNA barcoding projects for megadiverse and often taxonomically challenging groups such as mollusks, to fully realize its potential as an identification and discovery tool.

AURORA 2007

The superfamily Conoidea is one of the most speciose groups of marine molluses, with almost 700 genera and 10,000 living species. Previous classifications were based on morphological and anatomical characters, but clades and phylogenetic relationships were not well assessed. Information provided by one mitochondrial (COI) and three nuclear (28S, 18S, and H3) genes were used to infer the phylogeny of this group. Data were obtained from more than 100 specimens, belonging to 54 genera, collected during recent cruises in the western Pacific (Philippines, Vanuatu, Norfolk Ridge, and Chesterfield and Solomon Islands). Analyses were performed on each gene independently as well as for a data matrix where all genes were concatenated, using several methods (ML, Parsimony, Bayesian). Some families and subfamilies among Conoidea correspond to well-supported clades uniformly recovered with all genes and all methods, but others appear to be polyphyletic. Several bathyal and abyssal genera are also shown to he polyphyletic. Our results also point out some new phylogenetic relationships at the family, subfamily, and genus levels.

BOA1, EBISCO, NORFOLK 2, PANGLAO 2004, PANGLAO 2005, SALOMON 2, SANTO 2006

The primary purpose of DNA-barcoding projects is to generate an efficient expertise and identification tool. This is an important challenge to the taxonomy of the 21st century, as the demand increases and the expert capacity does not. However, identifying specimens using DNA-barcodes requires a preliminary analysis to relate molecular clusters to available scientific names. Through a case study of the genus Eumunida (Decapoda : Eumunididae), we illustrate how naming molecule-based units, and thus providing an accurate DNA-based identification tool, is facilitated by sequencing type specimens. Using both morphological and unlinked molecular markers (COI and 28S genes), we analysed 230 specimens from 12 geographic areas, covering two-thirds of the known diversity of the genus, including type specimens of 13 species. Most hypotheses of species delimitation are validated, as they correspond to molecular units linked to only one taxonomic name (and vice versa). However, a putative cryptic species is also revealed and three entities previously named as distinct species may in fact belong to a single one, and thus need to be synonymised. Our analyses, which integrate the current naming rules, enhance the a-taxonomy of the genus and provide an effective identification tool based on DNA-barcodes. They illustrate the ability of DNA-barcodes, especially when type specimens are included, to pinpoint where a taxonomic revision is needed.

BIOCAL, CHALCAL 1, KARUBAR, LITHIST, MUSORSTOM 4, MUSORSTOM 6, MUSORSTOM 7, NORFOLK 1, NORFOLK 2, SALOMON 1, SMCB

Accelerating the description of biodiversity is a major challenge as extinction rates increase. Integrative taxonomy combining molecular, morphological, ecological and geographical data is seen as the best route to reliably identify species. Classic molluscan taxonomic methodology proposes primary species hypotheses (PSHs) based on shell morphology. However, in hyperdiverse groups, such as the molluscan family Turridae, where most of the species remain unknown and for which homoplasy and plasticity of morphological characters is common, shell-based PSHs can be arduous. A four-pronged approach was employed to generate robust species hypotheses of a 1000 specimen South-West Pacific Turridae data set in which: (i) analysis of COI DNA Barcode gene is coupled with (ii) species delimitation tools GMYC (General Mixed Yule Coalescence Method) and ABGD (Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery) to propose PSHs that are then (iii) visualized using Klee diagrams and (iv) evaluated with additional evidence, such as nuclear gene rRNA 28S, morphological characters, geographical and bathymetrical distribution to determine conclusive secondary species hypotheses (SSHs). The integrative taxonomy approach applied identified 87 Turridae species, more than doubling the amount previously known in the Gemmula genus. In contrast to a predominantly shell-based morphological approach, which over the last 30 years proposed only 13 new species names for the Turridae genus Gemmula, the integrative approach described here identified 27 novel species hypotheses not linked to available species names in the literature. The formalized strategy applied here outlines an effective and reproducible protocol for large-scale species delimitation of hyperdiverse groups.

AURORA 2007, BOA1, EBISCO, NORFOLK 2, PANGLAO 2004, PANGLAO 2005, SALOMON 2, SALOMONBOA 3, TAIWAN 2004

Previous studies have suggested that the high diversity associated with the Norfolk seamounts (Southwest Pacific) could reflect endemism resulting from limited dispersal due to hydrological phenomena. Crustaceans of the family Galatheidae are thoroughly studied in the New Caledonia economic zone permitting the analysis of species distribution pattern between the New Caledonia slope and Norfolk ridge seamounts. This analysis has shown that, qualitatively, the same species are sampled on seamounts and on the New Caledonia slope. Local endemism was never detected. However, on each seamount, and therefore on a small surface, a very high number of species are usually sampled, suggesting that seamounts are biodiversity hot spots. Then, to evaluate whether the seamounts constitute patches of isolated habitat, we explore the pattern of genetic diversity within several species of crustaceans and gastropods. Analysis of the intra-specific genetic structure using the mitochondrial marker COI reveals that populations of two Galatheidae species (Munida thoe and Munida zebra), polymorphic for this marker, are genetically not structured, both among seamounts and between the seamounts and the island slope. The genetic structure over a similar sampling scheme of two Eumunida species (Chirostylidae, the sister family of Galatheidae) and a planktotrophic gastropod (Sassia remensa) reveals a similar pattern. Population structure is observed only in Nassaria problematica, a non-planktotrophic gastropod with limited larvae dispersal. Thus, the limitation of gene flow between seamounts appears to be observed only for species with limited dispersal abilities. Our results suggest that the Norfolk seamounts rather than functioning as areas of endemism, instead, may be highly productive zones that can support numerous species in small areas.

NORFOLK 1, NORFOLK 2

Molecular data were used to study the diversity of mytilids associated with sunken-woods sampled in the Solomon Islands and discuss the 'wooden steps to deep-sea vent' hypothesis proposed by Distel et al. First, COI data used in a barcoding approach confirm the presence of four distinct species. Analyses of the 18S rDNA and COI dataset then confirmed that these sunken-wood mytilids belonged to a monophyletic group including all species from deep-sea reducing environments. Finally, we analyzed the relationships within this monophyletic group that include the Bathymodiolinae using a COI dataset and a combined analysis of mitochondrial COI and ND4 genes and nuclear rDNA 18S and 28S. Our study supported the 'wooden steps to deep-sea vent' hypothesis: one of the sunken-wood species had a basal position within the Bathymodiolionae, and all described vent and seep mussels included in our analyses were derived taxa within Bathymodiolinae.

SALOMON 2, SANTO 2006

AURORA 2007, BENTHAUS, BOA0, BOA1, BORDAU 1, BORDAU 2, EBISCO, NORFOLK 1, NORFOLK 2, PANGLAO 2005, SALOMON 2, SALOMONBOA 3, SANTO 2006, TARASOC, TERRASSES

The deep-sea part of the ‘Papua Niugini Biodiversity Expedition’ surveyed the deep-sea environments along the coasts of New Guinea Island in the Bismarck Sea, from the Vitiaz Strait to the border between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Irian Jaya. This expedition was a follow-up of the BIOPAPUA cruise (2010) that gave some of the first insights into the diversity of the deep-sea fauna of the Bismarck and Solomon Seas for environments other than deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The main aims of the cruise were to survey the diversity of the fauna of (i) hard bottoms that are typically found on deep seamounts, (ii) Astrolabe Bay from 200 m to about 1000 m, (iii) the chemosynthetic environments of the deep sea, including cold-seep environments and plant debris. Astrolabe Bay was one of our targets because its topography allows sampling over the complete bathymetric gradient covered by our sampling gear (down to 1000 m depth), and the recent start of nickel refining activities in the bay is a potential threat to its marine fauna for which little reference data are available. Sampling in the bay revealed not only a diversified fauna associated with soft bottoms and plant debris, but also a chemosynthetic fauna typical of coldseep environments (e.g. siboglinid worms and bathymodioline mussels) below the Ramu refinery. Although the refinery activities had officially started just one week before our work in the area, we observed impacts of these activities. Our molecular work indicates that the siboglinid tubeworm species and one of the two mussel species collected below the Ramu refinery have so far only been documented from this location, despite intensive sampling effort. This illustrates the potential destructive effects of human activities in areas where the diversity and uniqueness of deep-sea communities are poorly understood.

BIOPAPUA, MADEEP, PAPUA NIUGINI