Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-11T00:03:51.130Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Post-larval development and growth intraspecific variations in Ophiocoma echinata and Ophiocoma trindadensis from Brazil (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2025

Cecília J. S. Damiano Open the ORCID record for Cecília J. S. Damiano [Opens in a new window] ,
Helena Serrano Open the ORCID record for Helena Serrano [Opens in a new window] ,
Renata A. S. Alitto Open the ORCID record for Renata A. S. Alitto [Opens in a new window] ,
Joel B. Mendonça ,
Marcos Tavares Open the ORCID record for Marcos Tavares [Opens in a new window]  and
Michela Borges Open the ORCID record for Michela Borges [Opens in a new window]
Cecília J. S. Damiano*
Affiliation:
Museum of Biological Diversity – MDBio – Zoology Area (ZUEC), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Institute of Biology, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Helena Serrano
Affiliation:
Museum of Biological Diversity – MDBio – Zoology Area (ZUEC), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Institute of Biology, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Renata A. S. Alitto
Affiliation:
Museum of Biological Diversity – MDBio – Zoology Area (ZUEC), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Institute of Biology, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Joel B. Mendonça
Affiliation:
Zoology Museum, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Marcos Tavares
Affiliation:
Zoology Museum, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Michela Borges
Affiliation:
Museum of Biological Diversity – MDBio – Zoology Area (ZUEC), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Institute of Biology, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
*
Corresponding author: Cecília J. S. Damiano; Email: damiano.cecilia14@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Identifying cryptic species and juveniles in the Ophiuroidea has always been a challenge. However, post-larval developmental studies have the potential to uncover the identity of these cryptic species and juveniles, as they offer valuable information that is not often found in adults. Although the importance of studying growth series is well-known in ophiuroids, it is difficult to obtain and identify the juvenile stages. For this reason, most studies are restricted to brooding species and information is lacking for many species, including those of the genus Ophiocoma. In this study, a growth series was developed to show the main differences during the development of two similar species of Ophiocoma: Ophiocoma echinata and Ophiocoma trindadensis. Using morphometry and scanning electron microscopy, we describe in detail the juveniles, intermediate stage, and adults of O. echinata and O. trindadensis. Differences in the shape of the ventral arm plate and dorsalmost arm spines, the number of tentacle scales, and the presence of granules ventrally were highlighted in the separation and identification of juveniles of both species.

Keywords

brittle starsgrowth seriesmorphometrySEMtaxonomy
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 105 , 2025 , e12
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albuquerque, MN (1986) Ophiuroidea Gray, 1840 (Echinodermata) da plataforma continental do norte e nordeste brasileiro. PhD thesis, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil.Google Scholar
Alitto, RAS, Amaral, ACZ, Oliveira, LD, Serrano, H, Seger, KR, Guilherme, PDB, Di Domenico, M, Christensen, AB, Lourenço, LB, Tavares, M and Borges, M (2019) Atlantic West Ophiothrix spp. in the scope of integrative taxonomy: confirming the existence of Ophiothrix trindadensis Tommasi, 1970. PLoS ONE 14, e0210331.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alitto, RAS, Bueno, ML, Guilherme, PDB, Di Domenico, M, Christensen, AB and Borges, M (2018) Shallow-water brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from Araçá Bay (southeastern Brazil), with spatial distribution considerations. Zootaxa 4405, 1–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, MW (2022) ggord: ordination plots with ggplot2. R package version 1.1.7. Available at https://zenodo.org/badge/latesdoi/35334615.Google Scholar
Benavides-Serrato, M and O'Hara, TD (2008) A new species in the Ophiocoma erinaceus complex from the south-west Pacific Ocean (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea: Ophiocomidae). Memoirs of Museum Victoria 65, 51–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borges, M and Alitto, RAS (2021) Classe Ophiuroidea. In Steiner, TM, Amaral, ACZ and Borges, M (eds), Manual de identificação dos invertebrados marinhos da região sudeste-sul do Brasil. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, pp. 278–306.Google Scholar
Borges, M, Alitto, RAS and Amaral, ACZ (2015) From baby to adult: ontogenetic series of nine species of Ophiuroidea from Atlantic Southwestern. Revista de Biología Tropical 63, 361–381.Google Scholar
Borges, M, Monteiro, AMG and Amaral, ACZ (2002) Taxonomy of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from the continental shelf and slope of the southern and southeastern Brazilian coast. Biota Neotropica 2, 1–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, HL (1914) Growth changes in brittle stars. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 5, 93–126.Google Scholar
Clark, HL (1921) The echinoderm fauna of Torres Strait: its composition and its origin. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 10, 1–330.Google Scholar
Clark, HL (1933) A handbook of the littoral echinoderms of Porto Rico and the other West Indian Islands. Scientific survey, Porto Rico and Virgin Islands. New York Academy of Sciences 16, 1–147.Google Scholar
Clark, AH (1939) Echinoderms of the Smithsonian-Hartford Expedition 137, with other West Indian records. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 86, 441–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, AH, Rathbun, MJ, Boone, PL, Shoemakae, CR and Clark, HL (1921) Reports on the Crinoids, Ophiurans, Brachyura, Tanidacea and Isopoda, Amphipods and Echinoidea of the Barbados-Antigua expedition of 1918. University of Iowa, Studies in Natural History 9, 1–63.Google Scholar
da Silva, JF, Prata, J and Christoffersen, ML (2023) Intraspecific variations in species of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from the Tropical Southwest Atlantic, northeast Brazil. Organisms Diversity & Evolution 23, 577–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devaney, DM (1968) The Systematics and Post-Larval Growth Changes in Ophiocomid Brittlestars. PhD thesis, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA.Google Scholar
Devaney, DM (1970) Studies on ophiocomid brittlestars. I. A new genus (Clarkcoma) of Ophiocominae with a reevaluation of the genus Ophiocoma. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 51, 1–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, H (1939) Echinoderms from Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire and northern Venezuela. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands 8, 1–12.Google Scholar
Falkner, I and Byrne, M (2006) Skeletal characters for identification of juvenile Ophiactis resiliens and Amphiura constricta (Echinodermata): cryptic ophiuroids in coralline turf habitat. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 86, 1199–1207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goharimanesh, M, Stöhr, S, Mirshamsi, O, Ghassemzadeh, F and Adriaens, D (2021) Interactive identification key to all brittle star families (Echinodermata; Ophiuroidea) leads to revised morphological descriptions. European Journal of Taxonomy 766, 1–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grave, C (1898) Embryology of Ophiocoma echinata, Agassiz. (Preliminary Note). Johns Hopkins University Circulars 18, 6–7.Google Scholar
Hendler, G (1978) Development of Amphioplus abditus (Verrill) (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). II. Description and discussion of ophiuroid skeletal ontogeny and homologies. Biological Bulletin 154, 79–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendler, G (1984) Brittlestar color-change and phototaxis (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea: Ophiocomidae). Marine Ecology 5, 379–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendler, G (1988) Ophiuroid skeleton ontogeny reveals homologies among skeletal plates of adults: a study of Amphiura filiformis, Amphiura stimpsonii and Ophiophragmus filograneus (Echinodermata). Biological Bulletin 174, 20–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendler, G (2018) Armed to the teeth: a new paradigm for the buccal skeleton of brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). Contributions in Science 526, 189–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humara-Gil, KJ, Granja-Fernández, R, Montoya-Márquez, JA and López-Pérez, A (2022) A morphological and morphometric approach to study Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata): size changes of Ophiocomella alexandri. Journal of Morphology 283, 35–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koehler, R (1914) A contribution to the study of ophiurans of the United States National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 84, 1–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamarck, JBPA (1816) Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres. Verdière 2, 1–568.Google Scholar
Lima, EJB and Fernandes, MLB (2009) Diversidade de equinodermos (Echinodermata) no Estado de Pernambuco (Brasil). Revista Brasileira de Zoociências 11, 55–63.Google Scholar
Ludwig, H (1898) Die Ophiuren der Sammlung plate. Zoologische Jahrbuecher Supplement 4, 750–786.Google Scholar
Ludwig, H (1899) Jugendformen von Ophiuren. Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 14, 210–235.Google Scholar
Lyman, T (1865) Ophiuridae and Astrophytidae. Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 1, 1–200.Google Scholar
Manso, CLC (1993) Ofiuroides da plataforma brasileira. Parte II: norte do estado do Rio de Janeiro, estado do Espírito Santo, sul do estado da Bahia e bancos Royal Charlotte, Hostpur e Davis. (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). Revista Brasileira de Biologia 53, 189–195.Google Scholar
Manso, CLC, Alves, OFS and Martins, LR (2008) Echinodermata da Baía de Todos os Santos e da Baía de Aratu (Bahia, Brasil). Biota Neotropica 8, 179–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martynov, A, Ishida, Y, Irimura, S, Tajiri, R, O'Hara, T and Fujita, T (2015) When ontogeny matters: a new Japanese species of brittle star illustrates the importance of considering both adult and juvenile characters in taxonomic practice. PLoS ONE 10, e0139463.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miranda, ALS, Lima, MLF, Sovierzoski, HH and Correia, MD (2012) Inventory of the Echinodermata collection from the Universidade Federal de Alagoas. Biota Neotropica 12, 135–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monteiro, AMG (1987) Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) da região de Ubatuba (SP) – aspectos morfológicos e ecológicos. PhD thesis, Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto Oceanográfico, São Paulo, Brasil.Google Scholar
Monteiro, AMG, Reis, MO and Pardo, EV (1992) Morfologia comparativa e distribuição batimétrica de duas espécies de Ophiuroidea, na região costeira de Ubatuba. Boletim do Instituto Oceanográfico 40, 39–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortensen, T (1936) Echinoidea and Ophiuroidea. ‘Discovery’ Reports 12, 199–348.Google Scholar
O'Hara, TD, Stöhr, S, Hugall, AF, Thuy, B and Martynov, A (2018) Morphological diagnoses of higher taxa in Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) in support of a new classification. European Journal of Taxonomy 416, 1–35.Google Scholar
Oksanen, J, Blanchet, FG, Friendly, M, Kindt, R, Legendre, P, McGlinn, D, Minchin, PR, O'Hara, RB, Simpson, GL, Solymos, P, Stevens, MHH, Szoecs, E and Wagner, H (2019) vegan: community ecology package. R package version, 2.5-6. R package version. Available at https://cran.rproject.org/web/packages/vegan/vegan.Pdf.Google Scholar
Olbers, JM and Samyn, Y (2012) The Ophiocoma species (Ophiurida: Ophiocomidae) of South Africa. Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science 10, 137–154.Google Scholar
Price, ARG and Rowe, FWE (1996) Indian Ocean echinoderms collected during the Sindbad Voyage (1980–81): 3. Ophiuroidea and Echinoidea. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum London (Zoology) 62, 71–82.Google Scholar
Rathbun, R (1879) A list of the Brazilian echinoderms, with notes on their distribution, etc. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 5, 139–158.Google Scholar
R Development Core Team (2018) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at https://www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
Schoener, A (1967) Post-larval development of five deep-sea ophiuroids. Deep-Sea Research 14, 645–660.Google Scholar
Schoener, A (1969) Atlantic ophiuroids: some post-larval forms. Deep-Sea Research 16, 127–140.Google Scholar
Serrano, H, Damiano, CJS, Alitto, RAS, Guilherme, PDB, Cerqueira, WRP, Mendonça, JB, Tavares, M and Borges, M (2023) A new species of Ophiocoma (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from Archipelago Trindade and Martin Vaz, Southeastern Atlantic, and redescription of Ophiocoma echinata. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 103, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stöhr, S (2005) Who's who among baby brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea): postmetamorphic development of some North Atlantic forms. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 143, 543–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stöhr, S, Conand, C and Boissin, E (2008) Brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from La Réunion and the systematic position of Ophiocanops Koehler, 1922. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 153, 545–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stöhr, S and Martynov, A (2016) Paedomorphosis as an evolutionary driving force: insights from deep-sea brittle stars. PLoS ONE 11, e0164562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stöhr, S, O'Hara, TD and Thuy, B (2012) Global diversity of brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). PLoS ONE 7, e31940.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sumida, PY, Tyler, PA, Gage, JD and Nørrevang, A (1998) Postlarval development in shallow and deep-sea ophiuroids (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) of the NE Atlantic Ocean. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 124, 267–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thuy, B and Stöhr, S (2011) Lateral arm plate morphology in brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea): new perspectives for ophiuroid micropalaeontology and classification. Zootaxa 3013, 1–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thuy, B and Stöhr, S (2016) A new morphological phylogeny of the Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) accords with molecular evidence and renders microfossils accessible for cladistics. PLoS ONE 11, e0156140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tommasi, LR (1970) Os ofiuróides recentes do Brasil e de regiões vizinhas. Contribuições Avulsas do Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidade de São Paulo, Série Oceanografia Biológica 20, 1–146.Google Scholar
Turner, RL and Miller, JE (1988) Post-metamorphic recruitment and morphology of two sympatric brittlestars. In Burke, RD, Mladenov, PV, Lambert, P and Parsley, RL (eds), Echinoderm Biology: Proceedings of the Sixth International Echinoderm Conference, Victoria, 23–28 August 1987. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, pp. 493–502.Google Scholar
Tyler, PA, Patterson, GJL, Sibuet, M, Guille, A, Murtons, BJ and Segonzac, M (1995) A new genus of ophiuroid (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from hydrothermal mounds along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 75, 977–986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vadon, C (1990) Ophiozonella novaecaledoniae n. sp. (Ophiuroidea, Echinodermata): description, ontogeny and phyletic position. Journal of Natural History 24, 165–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venables, WN and Ripley, BB (2002) Random and mixed effects. In Venables WN and Ripley BB (eds), Modern Applied Statistics with S. New York, NY: Springer, pp. 271–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verrill, AE (1899) Report on the Ophiuroidea collected by the Bahama expedition in 1893. Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History of the State University of Iowa 5, 1–88.Google Scholar
Webb, PM and Tyler, PA (1985) Post-larval development of the common north-west European brittle stars Ophiura ophiura, O. albida and Acrocnida brachiata (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). Marine Biology 89, 281–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickham, H, Averick, M, Bryan, J, Chang, W, McGowan, LD'A, François, R, Grolemund, G, Hayes, A, Henry, L, Hester, J, Kuhn, M, Pedersen, TL, Miller, E, Bache, SM, Müller, K, Ooms, J, Robinson, D, Seidel, DP, Spinu, V, Takahashi, K, Vaughan, D, Wilke, C, Woo, K and Yutani, H (2019) Welcome to the tidyverse. Journal of Open Source Software 4, 1686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Damiano et al. supplementary material 1

Damiano et al. supplementary material
Download Damiano et al. supplementary material 1(File)
File 25.8 KB
Supplementary material: File

Damiano et al. supplementary material 2

Damiano et al. supplementary material
Download Damiano et al. supplementary material 2(File)
File 26.6 KB
Supplementary material: File

Damiano et al. supplementary material 3

Damiano et al. supplementary material
Download Damiano et al. supplementary material 3(File)
File 14.8 KB
Supplementary material: File

Damiano et al. supplementary material 4

Damiano et al. supplementary material
Download Damiano et al. supplementary material 4(File)
File 69.9 KB