Description of a new species of black coral in the family Aphanipathidae (Anthozoa, Antipatharia) from Puerto Rico

Black corals (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) are an anthozoan lineage in the class Hexacorallia that occur across a wide range of habitats from the tropics to the poles and from surface waters to depths deeper than 8000 m. A new species of black coral, Aphanipathespuertoricoensissp. nov., collected with a remotely operated vehicle 357 m deep off Puerto Rico is recognized in the family Aphanipathidae. The new species is characterized by very long and loosely coiled primary branches and up to 0.5 mm tall spines with as many as 40 or more small conical tubercles. A phylogeny composed of 13 taxa that are closely related to the new species was reconstructed from 793 nuclear loci to show their systematic relationships. Our study integrated morphological and genomic data to show that this new species is distinct from other species in the genus Aphanipathes. Furthermore, our results add to the growing knowledge of black coral diversity, while further demonstrating the need for exploration in deep waters of the Caribbean Sea.