1. Marine and freshwater centrohelid heliozoans (Haptista: Centroplasthelida) in Canada, including taxonomic revisions and descriptions of 22 new species and subspecies
- Author
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Nicholls, Kenneth H.
- Subjects
Protista -- Identification and classification -- Discovery and exploration -- Natural history ,Zoology and wildlife conservation - Abstract
Canadian coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean as well as inland freshwater habitats in Ontario were sampled for centrohelid heliozoans (free-living heterotrophic single-celled organisms) over a period of nearly five decades. More than 60 species and subspecies were revealed, including 1 Triangulopteris, 1 Raphidocystis, 2 Pseudoraphidocystis, 3 Raineriophrys, 4 Pseudoraphidiophrys, 12 Choanocystis, 15 Pterocystis, and 25 Acanthocystis taxa. Of these, 22 were officially named and described as new to science based primarily on the morphology of the siliceous scales that cover the cell. New species were compared with images and/or descriptions of close 'relatives' to validate their new species assignments. New data on five species of Acanthocystis and one species of Choanocystis required revisions of their descriptive taxonomy that in some cases resulted in the splitting off of separate species or subspecies. Very little can be concluded about global distribution of centrohelid heliozoans, owing to the paucity of records. For many of the taxa reported here, previous records consist of just one or two findings from other parts of the world. One example is Choanocystis antarctica Tikhonenkov and Mylnikov, 2011 that was previously known only from Antarctic seawater, but is reported here from an Ontario softwater lake. Key words: heliozoans, silica-scaled protists, taxonomy, new species, Haptista, Centroplasthelida, Introduction The centrohelid heliozoans comprise a relatively large group of over 100 free-living species with filose pseudopodia and endogenously produced siliceous scales that cover the cell. Where found, in a [...]
- Published
- 2023
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