Dendrophyllia alternata Pourtales 1880

Dendrophyllia alternata Pourtalès, 1880

(Figs. 6 E–G, tables 1−3)

Dendrophyllia alternata: Zibrowius 1980: 178, pl. 90, figs. A–J.—Ramil Blanco & Fernández Pulpeiro 1990: 28.—Cairns & Chapman 2001: 35 (tab. 1).—Brito & Ocaña 2004: 427, fig. 157.—Kitahara 2007: 510, fig. 5j.—Reveillaud et al. 2008: 322 (tab. 1), 325 (fig. 4).—Altuna 2010: 21.

Material examined. Galicia Bank: Stn. R 2, 614 m, three small dead fragments, worn.

Description. Corallum colonial, attached, branched in one plane. Largest fragments examined 4.1−5.5 cm long, up to 0.69 cm width, and much eroded. Branches originating above adcauline wall of calices. Coenosteum scarcely porous, with porosity only apparent near calicular margin. Costae prominent, covering the whole coenosteum, rounded, well individualized due to deep intercostal striae, with delicate spines. Corallites oblique to axis and located laterally in one plane, alternatively left and right, giving sometimes the colony a zig-zag habitus. Corallites 0.3−0.4 cm in height with intercalicular distances 0.66−0.94 cm, small (GCD= 0.42−0.57 cm), round to slightly elongated, with GCD in the sense of growth of colony. Septa in four cycles irregularly developed (32–34 septa), with S4 joined before S3. Septal faces with small pointed granules. Fossa moderately deep, containing an elongated columella formed by thin rods or lamellae, or as a compact mass. Corallum light brown.

Remarks. The material is scarce and mostly rather worn, and the description is necessarily incomplete. The calices are eroded, and some of the axial structures are not clearly seen, as for instance the paliform lobes described by Cairns (1979) and Zibrowius (1980). Nevertheless, the corallum is distinctive and the material leaves no doubt about its identification.

Specimens were collected at 614 m depth, a deeper depth than the range given by Zibrowius (1980, 380− 440 m) for the Iberian Peninsula bathyal, but all specimens were dead. Previous records correspond to some stations off the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, between 44º12.4’N − 08º41’W and 43º06.3’N − 09º36’W (Zibrowius 1980).

Dendrophyllia alternata is an amphiatlantic coral rarely recorded although widely distributed. It is known from northwestern Iberian Peninsula off Galicia and Azores (Zibrowius 1980), a few records from Central America (Cairns 1979), Canary Islands (Brito & Ocaña 2004), and Brazil (Kitahara 2007). It is a new record for the “West coast of Spain and Portugal (J)” region (see Zibrowius 1980).