Bathycrinus gracilis Thomson, 1872a

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 : 18

Bathycrinus gracilis Thomson, 1872a

Reports for the Azores:

Bathycrinus gracilis Thomson, 1872 a— $ Koehler 1909: 254–255; A.M. Clark 1977: 164–167, figs. 1a–f; A.M. Clark 1980: 206–207, fig. 5; Mironov et al. 2014: 115.

Type locality: off West coast of France (47°38’N, 12°08’W) .

See: Carpenter (1884); A.M. Clark (1977).

Occurrence: Northeast Atlantic, from SW of Ireland to Cape Finisterre ( NW Spain) and the Azores (A.M. Clark 1977, 1980).

Depth: 2,880 –5,275 m ( Mironov et al. 2014); AZO: 5,005 m ( Koehler 1909).

Habitat: soft bottoms, on Globigerina ooze ( Koehler 1909).

Remarks: Bathycrinus gracilis is known from relatively few specimens, none of which was recovered complete, including the immature type material (presumably lost; Carpenter 1884; Koehler 1909; A.M. Clark 1977, 1980). Moreover, the only known record from Azorean waters is based on a single animal collected by Princesse Alice (sta 749: 38°54’00”N, 21°06’45”W, 5,005 m), only slightly larger than the type material (A.M. Clark 1977). Nevertheless, the paucity of available specimens can be explained by the great depths at which this species lives. Additionally, the West Atlantic species B. aldrichianus Thomson, 1876 is closely related to B. gracilis and Mironov et al. (2014) suggested that it might prove to be conspecific.