Ceramaster grenadensis grenadensis ( Perrier, 1881 )

Madeira, Patrícia, Kroh, Andreas, Cordeiro, Ricardo, De, António M., Martins, Frias & Ávila, Sérgio P., 2019, The Echinoderm Fauna of the Azores (NE Atlantic Ocean), Zootaxa 4639 (1), pp. 1-231 : 89

Ceramaster grenadensis grenadensis ( Perrier, 1881)

Reports for the Azores:

Pentagonaster gosselini $ Perrier, 1885c: 35, 1894: 399–401 , pl. 26, fig. 4, 1896a: 45; $ Koehler 1909: 84, pl. 1, fig. 9; Pentagonaster balteatus Sladen, 1891 — Farran 1913: 9–10; Ceramaster balteatus ( Sladen, 1891) — Mortensen 1927a: 82, fig. 45; $ Tortonese 1955: 676–677; Ceramaster grenadensis ( Perrier, 1881) — Downey 1973: 49–50, pl. 17, figs. C–D; Dilman 2014: 32; Ceramaster grenadensis grenadensis ( Perrier, 1881)—A.M. Clark & Downey 1992: 234–235, figs. 39c–d, pl. 55, figs. C–D; García-Diez et al. 2005: 47.

Type locality: Grenada, Caribbean (12°04’N, 61°50”W) .

See: A.M. Clark & Downey (1992).

Occurrence: Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic, in the west from Florida to Brazil ( Halpern 1970) and in the east from SW Ireland to the Gulf of Guinea ( Downey 1973), including the Azores, Canaries and Cape Verde ( Perrier 1894, Koehler 1909). The subspecies Ceramaster grenadensis euryplax (H.L. Clark, 1923) is restricted to South Africa and C. grenadensis patagonicus ( Sladen, 1889) is known from the Falkland Islands, Burdwood Bank, Gulf of California and southern Alaska to the Bering Sea ( Mortensen 1936). Both C. grenadensis fisheri Bernasconi, 1963 and C. grenadensis productus Djakonov, 1950 are known only from the Pacific Ocean (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992).

Depth: 200– 2,845 m ( Mecho et al. 2014); AZO: 1,095 –1,557 m ( Perrier 1896, Koehler 1909).

Habitat: soft substrates, sand, mud to Globigerina ooze ( Koehler 1909).

Larval stage: lecithotrophic ( Mecho et al. 2015).

Remarks: Ceramaster grenadensis is a highly variable species, a feature reflected by its long list of synonyms, subspecies and varieties. Perrier (1885c, 1894) described Pentagonaster gosselini based on material collected by Talisman , which included specimens from the Azores. Later, Perrier (1896a) and Koehler (1909) reported the same species among the material collected by Hirondelle and Princesse Alice, respectively. Farran (1913) synonymized Perrier’s species with Ceramaster balteatus (= Pentagonaster balteatus ) described by Sladen (1891) from the southwest of Ireland. Previously, Verrill (1899) had proposed to synonymise C. balteatus with C. granularis (= Tosia granularis ), a decision that did not reunited consensus among contemporaneous authors. John & A.M. Clark (1954) accepted Verrill’s proposal and placed P. gosselini in the synonymy of Ceramaster granularis forma balteatus . However, Tortonese (1955) argued that C. balteatus was morphological distinct from C. granularis and only partially sympatric with the latter species, though he could not agree whether the observed differences could be supported at specific or subspecific level. Currently both C. balteatus and P. gosselini are considered conspecific with C. grenadensis .