Simposio 23 Resumen 153
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT DEEP-SEA GASTROPODS OF THE COLOMBIAN PACIFIC OCEAN? ADRIANA GRACIA C. and NANCY YOLIMAR SUAREZ MOZO Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras - INVEMAR, Museo de Historia Natural Marina de Colombia. Calle 25 No. 2-55, Playa Salguero, Santa Marta, Colombia. E-mail:
[email protected]. E-mail:
[email protected] Gastropods represent an important invertebrate group in the exploration of deep-sea soft bottoms. However, large knowledge gaps about Colombian marine gastropods persist. In this work, the first check list of gastropods collected by two INVEMAR expeditions is presented. It expands upon the inventory of macrofauna associated with soft bottoms of the continental shelf and upper slope. In 2002, 39 trawled net samples (70-500 m depths) were collected on board the R/V ARC Malpelo, offshore Choco Department. In 2010, 15 trawled net samples (200-1000 m depth) were collected on board the shrimp boat M/N Perla Verde offshore Nariño Department. Specimens were stored in the mollusk collection at the Museo de Historia Natural Marina de Colombia, Santa Marta. A total of 3227 specimens (71% living specimens and 29% empty shells) were sorted. They spanned a distribution of five orders (plus three unassigned groups), 26 families, 43 genera, and 62 morphospecies. Ninety-five percent of specimens were located offshore Choco, while 5% were collected offshore Nariño. The gastropod Nassarius spp. constituted the most abundant group (65%), while Turridae was the family with the highest number of morphospecies (18). Information on abundance, Colombian distribution, and depth is provided. Many collected species are likely the first of their types on record in Colombia. Future investigations of this region and group should be expanded to include a wider range of marine sites (subtidal, shelf, and bathyal depths) to represent the full taxonomic spectrum of snail shell communities in the tropical Pacific. This information is critical due to rapid lost of natural habitats on our planet, which causes a loss of uninventoried biodiversity in biologically megadiverse developing countries.
Key words: Taxonomy, Macrofauna, Mollusks, Upper slope, Soft bottoms, Museum collections
