The island nature and volcanic origin of the Cape Verde archipelago favour the formation of underwater caves, the preferred habitats of sponges of the Homoscleromorpha class. Until recently, very little was known about the biodiversity of these organisms in the tropical eastern Atlantic.
The oceanographic campaign DISCOVER (coord. C. Fauvelot, T. Pérez, L. Bramanti) was to fill these gaps. Targeted exploration of the underwater caves revealed a particularly rich fauna, including many species new to science.
In an article published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, an international team (Clément Cabioch, César Ruiz, Marie Grenier, Alexander Ereskovsky, Fernando Moraes, Cécile Fauvelot and Thierry Pérez) uses an integrative taxonomic approach (morphology, histology/cytology and genetics) to highlight an unsuspected diversity of Homoscleromorpha in Cape Verde.
The authors describe a new genus and five new species, all of which are typical of dark caves, and sometimes associated with very specific facies:
- Oscarella antea sp. nov.
- Aspiculina malanoba gen. nov. sp. nov.
- Plakinastrella fauvelotae sp. nov.
- Plakinastrella freitasi sp. nov.
- Plakinastrella cachupa sp. nov.
The last species was identified from historical specimens kept at the Naturalis Museum (Leiden), initially mistakenly attributed to P. simplex and P. monolopha. These results call into question the presence of these species in Cape Verde.
Beyond these discoveries, this study highlights the importance of integrative taxonomy in revealing the true diversity of sponges and better understanding their evolutionary history.
