Echinoderms, Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, Colombian Pacific: new reports and distributional issues

Abstract

A systematic list of echinoderms from Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary (MFFS) was prepared, based on local sampling, literature review and identification of specimens from Museo de Historia Natural Marina de Colombia (MHNMC) and from National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D. C. (USNM). Standard methodology for monitoring the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape was used in December 2006 and March 2007 to sample shallow water echinoderms (1-20 m deep). Malpelo is the richest locality of the Colombian Pacific with 84 species reported (56 % of them deep water organisms), belonging to 22 orders, 42 families and 68 genera, distributed between the surface and a depth of 5000 m. Thirty-six new records for MFFS and Colombian Pacific are reported. In Colombia the shallow water species are widely distributed in the Pacific, while deep forms only occur at Malpelo. The majority of species are mostly related to the Panamanian and Galapagos region showing a possible connectivity. This list increases knowledge on the echinoderm biodiversity from the Malpelo Island in 68 %.