A New Fissiparous Brittle Star From
Korea
A new species of Ophiuroidea, Ophiacantha scissionis sp. nov., is
described. It was collected from Munseom island, Jeju-do, South Korea
at a depth of 28–36 m, by SCUBA diving. Ophiacantha scissionis has unique
and distinct morphological characteristics: small disk, densely covered
by small trifid spines, radial shields completely concealed by disk
spines, six arms with four arm spines proximally, fissiparous. In
addition, this species is clearly distinguished from other species of Ophiacantha by mitochondrial COI.
This species is usually hexamerous and reproduces asexually by
fissiparity. It is the first report of fissiparous reproduction in the
genus Ophiacantha.



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Studies, here
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