Named Haliotis pirimoana, the newly-acknowledged gastropod species is supreme came across at Manawatāwhi Three Kings Islands, off Fresh Zealand’s North Island.
Shells of Haliotis pirimoana from Manawatāwhi Three Kings Islands (A-D) and Haliotis virginea (E-G). Scale bar – 5 mm in (A-C) and nil.5 mm in (D-G). Image credit: Jean-Claude Stahl.
Abalones (family Haliotidae) are herbivorous marine gastropods that bear laborious substrates in shallow non-polar regions worldwide.
Lots of haliotids are the premise of untamed-caught and/or aquaculture fisheries.
Furthermore, their shells are most frequently prized for work, cultural practices, jewellery, and by shell collectors.
Right now, almost 70 species and quite lots of subspecies and kinds are scientifically acknowledged, all within the genus Haliotis.
Haliotis pirimoana lives at 5-47 m depth below rocks and in rock crevices at Manawatāwhi Three Kings Islands.
This new species differs subtly but constantly in having finer and extra a huge quantity of spiral threads than the endemic Fresh Zealand abalone Haliotis virginea at an analogous stage of allege.
“Haliotis pirimoana superficially resembles specimens from North Island (along with come Wellington) populations of Haliotis virginea in shell morphology, but, at an analogous stage of allege differs considerably in having constantly finer spiral threads on the dorsal ground which would be extra evenly spaced, with narrower interspaces, and a extra tightly coiled columella,” stated Dr. Kerry Walton, a researcher on the University of Otago and Museum of Fresh Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and colleagues.
“These differences are in particular evident when shells from the a ways north of the North Island, closest to the Three Kings Islands, are when compared with Haliotis pirimoana: the passe beget a distinctly coarser sculpture.”
“Haliotis pirimoana differs additional from mainland populations of Haliotis virginea in common shell shape: once in a whereas having a lower profile, in particular abapically, a extra angular abapical margin, and a flatter, broader, and extra sharply delimited umbilical margin.”
In accordance to the review authors, whether Haliotis pirimoana has a relictual distribution at Three Kings Islands or diverged there from Haliotis virginea following a period of isolation is unknown.
“The shallow sublittoral fauna on the Three Kings Islands has extremely excessive regional endemism,” they stated.
“The drivers of excessive, localised stages of endemism on the Three Kings Islands live unclear, but this phenomenon is absolute self belief influenced by successive lessons of connectivity and isolation for the period of glacial cycles since the Miocene epoch.”
“The solid upwelling might even just end up in extra stable water prerequisites for the period of glacial cycles.”
“Given the small dimension of the Three Kings arena, its accessibility from mainland Fresh Zealand, its proximity to well-known shipping routes, and the excessive stage of regional endemism, the realm might even beget the earnings of addition of greater marine security.”
The invention of Haliotis pirimoana is reported in a paper within the journal Molluscan Be taught.
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Kerry Walton et al. Haliotis virginea Gmelin, 1791 and a new abalone from Aotearoa Fresh Zealand (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Haliotidae). Molluscan Be taught, printed online August 30, 2024; doi: 10.1080/13235818.2024.2390476
