Scientists from the A. V. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered and described a new species of deep-sea worms, Micronephthys nataliae. This was reported to TASS by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The species was found in the northwestern part of the Bering Sea, on the Koryak slope, and at the foot of the underwater Piipe Volcano. The material was collected during the analysis of two expeditions conducted by the A. V. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where mass settlements of polychaete worms of the Nephtyidae family were discovered.
The new species was named in honor of the Russian zoologist Natalia Yuryevna Dnestrovskaya, an employee of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The agency noted that her contribution to the taxonomy and systematics of the Nephtyidae family is decisive.
The scientists reported that Micronephthys nataliae differs morphologically and genetically from all previously known species of the genus Micronephthys. To confirm the species status and rule out intraspecific variability, they used an integrated morphological and molecular-genetic analysis.
The authors presented a detailed description of the new species with illustrations obtained using electron microscopy and carried out a comparative morphological analysis with closely related taxa. The Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education also noted that the habitat of these worms is extreme due to the extremely low oxygen content and the high concentration of hydrogen sulfide or methane, and the worms themselves are resistant to the toxic reducing environment.
About 100 species of the Nephtyidae family are known in the Pacific Ocean, but only seven representatives from three genera had previously been recorded in the Bering Sea. The new species expands our understanding of the species composition of the deep-sea communities of this region.
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