Overlooked brachiopods from the Karubenthos &; Madibenthos expeditions (French Caribbean) – biodiversity and ecology

Several marine expeditions by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Karubenthos and Madibenthos) with the RV “L’Antea” around the French Caribbean Islands, allow for the first time to highlight, among benthic faunas, the presence and diversity of representatives of the phylum Brachiopoda. Thirty species, including two new ones: Tichosina madininensis sp. nov. and Argyrotheca beaumalei sp. nov., and one never recorded before from the Caribbean Sea (Amphithyris aff. buckmanni Thomson, 1918) were recognised, belonging to the three subphyla composing the phylum. The diversity of the fauna, its morphological and microstructural characteristics, geographical distribution, and ecology are taken into consideration when comparing it with similar fauna from elsewhere in the Caribbean Sea and all over the world when available. Among genera, Gryphus Megerle von Mühlfeldt, 1871, Tichosina Cooper, 1977 with several species, and Erymnia Cooper, 1977 are the largest forms, while some of the smallest collected were Cryptopora Jeffreys, 1869, and Argyrotheca Dall, 1890. The latter genus has representatives with bright colours that should be considered as jewels of the benthos there. The pigments involved in their colouration deserve attention (analyses using Raman Spectroscopy are in progress). The commonest species collected, Terebratulina cailleti Crosse, 1865, is found attached to various substrates. All these brachiopods, as attached benthic organisms but overlooked for such a long time, are reliable archives of the local environment. Some of these brachiopods are living attached to or beneath corals, and to sponges, and are now considered to be in danger as a consequence of coral bleaching due to climate change and also to pollution.