''Aquilonastra conandae'' is a species of starfish from the family

Asterinidae The Asterinidae are a large family of sea stars in the order Valvatida. Description and characteristics These are generally small sea stars, flattened dorsally and bearing very short arms, often giving a pentagonal shape in the body ;example: ...

found near the

Mascarene Islands The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Thei ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

. It is known for its

asexual reproduction Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the fu ...

and is fissiparous. It is a small starfish, discrete and camouflaged, and occurs in coral reefs in the surf zone of large waves. The species was described in 2006 by Australian marine biologists P. Mark O'Loughlin and Francis Winston Edric Rowe, and gets its name from

Chantal Conand Chantal Conand (born 10 April 1943) is a French marine biologist. Biography Conand obtained her PhD in biological oceanography at University of Western Brittany in Brest in 1988. Her thesis focused on Aspidochirotida of the New Caledonia Barri ...

Description

It is a very small starfish, less than , with seven or eight short, rounded arms, often irregular in length. This is due to its potential of regeneration, but also to its ability to reproduce through fissiparity. The arms measure in length, and the starfish has multiple madreporites and a single spine on the interradial plates. Solitary papules are present on the top of the starfish. Spikes are present and are rough, granular, and crystalline, and are

conical A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

and prominent on the arms. It has an irregular pattern of colours, showing a grey-beige background with granular patterns of reddish or greenish. File:A conandae1.jpg, Aboral and oral faces. File:A conandae3b.png, A recently divided specimen File:A. conandae4.png, Regenerating specimen (probably after division) File:A. conandae2.jpeg, Regenerated specimen, with an irregular shape

Ecology and behaviour

''A. conandae'' reproduces by fission in addition to sexual reproduction, which takes place at the beginning of the summer. The gonopores (genital openings) are located on the upper side, and the observed

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

is 52 males per 93 females, but some specimens are

hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrate ...

Distribution

This species was first spotted at Réunion Island (south-tropical

) at the breakers on a coral reef at a section known as the "Watering Hole" (south of La Saline les Bains), where it is abundant. It was later identified in all the Mascarenes (mainly

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

and

Rodrigues Rodrigues (french: Île Rodrigues, link=yes ; Creole: ) is a autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Islands, which include Mauritius and Réunion. Rodr ...

), where it occurs between the surface and but more often on the reef front and rocky cliffs, but also on volcanic flows.

Systematics

This species was described in 2006 by P. Mark O'Loughlin and Francis Winston Edric Rowe, on the basis of material collected by

at Réunion Island, after whom it was named. Its

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

was collected in Trou d'Eau and is located in the National Museum of Natural History of France under the registration "IE-2013-2489". The genus name ''Aquilonastra'' comes from Latin ''

aquilonis ''Aquilonis'' (Latin "of the North Wind") is a classical and choral studio album by the Swedish trio Trio Mediæval recorded in June 2014 and released on the ECM New Series November that same year. Composition The album is named after a Swed ...

'' (meaning northern), and '' astra'' (meaning star), referring to the fact that this genus of starfish is found in the northern part of the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

. A similar species, also fissiparous, was discovered on

Europa Island Europa Island (, ), in Malagasy Nosy Ampela is a low-lying tropical atoll in the Mozambique Channel, about a third of the way from southern Madagascar to southern Mozambique. The island had never been inhabited until 1820, when the French fam ...

in the

Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (french: Canal du Mozambique, mg, Lakandranon'i Mozambika, pt, Canal de Moçambique) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about long ...

, and was described in 2013 as ''

Aquilonastra chantalae ''Aquilonastra chantalae'' is a species of starfish from the family Asterinidae. Asterinid sea stars are typically quite small with an often pentagonal-shaped body, though there are exceptions. They are dorsally flattened and have short arms. T ...

''.

References

External links

''Aquilonastra conandae''
on

World Register of Marine Species The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scientific specialist ...

.
''Aquilonastra conandae''
on the

Museum Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage facil ...

website. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1925670 Asterinidae Starfish described in 2006