Thread by @echinoblog

My NEW paper on #Okeanos CAPSTONE sea stars dropped today! published in @Zootaxa! Of the 20 specimens collected, 12 were NEW (i.e. undescribed species!). One was only seen on video but image allowed ID of specimen from @Le_Museum collections! THREAD! mapress.com/zt/article/vie…

Milteliphaster monstrosus NEW! Name alludes to the bristling spines! Imaged in the Marianas but specimen from the Solomon Islands! (@Le_Museum) collections! Turns out there were loose spines everywhere! maybe feeding on pedinid urchins? #echinoday

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum We saw this cute little star during my dive on 1706 #Okeanos! A goniasterid I named for the ship! Okeanosaster hohonui! Species is the Hawaiian word for deep, befitting its depth of 1743-3304 m occurrence! #echinoday

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum This cool little cookie star had interesting little dagger or spade like spines around the actinolateral edge! Litonotaster gfoei. Named after the @Discover_GFOE who worked tirelessly to collect it! #okeanos #echinoday another DEEP one! seen in 2010-3708 meter depths!

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum On EX1706 we collected this hefty goniasterid feeding on a glass sponge.. it was undescribed! I introduce Ceramaster vorax! Species epithet alludes to its appetite when we collected it! #okeanos #echinoday from Johnston Atoll!

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum Hippasteria capstonei! Named for the exploratory mission! #CAPSTONE! We observed this species feeding on the primnoid coral Narella! But it ONLY fed on the tissue INSIDE the capsules! It seemingly left those capsules alone, leaving empty bits! #okeanos #echinoday #octocoralFriday

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum The paratype of Bathyceramaster teres! Seen here feeding on the glass sponge Waltheria, from Howland Island at 2175 meters! #okeanos #echinoday

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum My colleague Dr. Megan Putts collected this during #Okeanos 1708, Musician Seamounts. I wanted to verify it was a known species-but I was wrong-TOTALLY undescribed..until now! Thus new genus Atheraster symphonia named for the musicians! #Echinoday

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum My colleague Chris Kelley during one of the @EVNautilus collected this, which we only had video of from #okeanos.. Undescribed species! Likely feeds on ophiuroids from what I saw of the video. Named for the Hawaiian goddess of the ocean, Namaka, Solaster namakae #echinoday

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum THIS beast! One of the most mysterious of the stars we collected! obtained by #okeanos @EVNautilus The external appearance led me to think one group, but internal skeleton was inconsistent! New genus/sp. Heligmaster (two species) in the rarely encountered Myxasteridae! #echinoday

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum Heligmaster had 2 species! named for Pele and Kanaloa-the Hawaiian gods of Volcanos and the Oceans, respectively, alluding to the habitat (all that basalt) roughly 2400-2700 m depths! DNA may be necessary to 100% figure out where this starfish goes in the big picture! #echinoday

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum Honestly, there's more in the paper but these are some of the "highlight" taxa! My thanks to #Okeanos, @EVNautilus @Discover_GFOE and the Science leads for making this paper possible. To all of you screengrab fans! KEEP IT UP! Your enthusiasm makes these discoveries possible!

@Zootaxa @Le_Museum its worth mentioning that publication of the names is only the START of our understanding of these systems! We'll get more of a handle on who is out there and what is going on with the ecology. Thanks to these efforts we know that at a basic level, there's a LOT to learn!