Discovery of Adults Linked to Cloning Oceanic Starfish Larvae (Oreasier, Asteroidea: Echinodermata)

Two juvenile specimens of anew species of Oreaster were collected at Parque Nacional Arrecife Alacranes and Triangulos Oeste in the southern Gulf of Mexico. DNA of mitochondrial loci identifies them as members of the same clade as cloning larvae of Oreaster found abundantly in waters of the Florida Current-Gulf Stream system, and distinct from Oreaster clavatus and Oreaster reticulatus, the two known Oreasteridae species in the North Atlantic. Larvae from the new species of Oreaster persist as clones but also metamorphose and settle to the benthos with typical asteroid morphology.
Introduction Several clades of echinoderms clone as larvae (reviewed in Allen et al., 2018). Bosch et al. (1989) discovered cloning asteroid larvae in the Gulf Stream and in the Sargasso [...]