Ophiodiscus bukini N. Sanamyan, K. Sanamyan, Galkin, Ivin et Bocharova, 2021

Ophiodiscus bukini N. Sanamyan, K. Sanamyan, Galkin, Ivin et Bocharova, 2021 View in CoL

Fig. 3B View Fig .

Ophiodiscus bukini Sanamyan et al., 2021: 427 View in CoL .

MATERIAL. LV-75-21, 55.4796ºN 167. 2534ºE – 55.4751ºN 167.2523ºE, depth 2810– 2673 m, one specimen collected (sample 9) and three specimens photographed.

REMARKS. Large disc-shaped sea anemone freely lying on the bottom. The short column is completely hidden under the oral disc, about 20 cm in diameter. Short, conical, with pointed tips tentacles are all of the same shape and arranged in a single cycle on the margin of the disc, that makes this anemone unusually looking and easily recognizable in underwater photographs. Its shape somewhat resembles Sicyonis heliodiscus Sanamyan et al., 2015 , another disc-shaped species recently described from material collected by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute ( USA) in the eastern Pacific Ocean ( Sanamyan et al., 2015a). Sicyonis heliodiscus , however, has much more numerous tentacles and they are blunt and arranged in two cycles. Four specimens Ophiodiscus bukini were photographically documented on the soft bottom and also on the rock covered by sediment on the northern slope of the Vulcanologov Massif at 2673–2810 m. This depth rang between the bathyal and abyssal zones is stated to be the depth of the largest community changes, or the largest turnover of dominant species in this region (see Rybakova et al., 2020).