A team of marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have described an unusually large and distinctive deep-sea crown jellyfish with coiled tentacles, belonging to a monogeneric family with 10 species currently accepted in the genus Atolla .
The species Atolla chuni, Atolla gigantea and Atolla vanhoeffeni are the most recognizable. But, following this discovery, some features that were thought to be species-specific have turned out to be less useful in separating them. Specifically, one feature that researchers frequently use to identify Atolla is their elongated or hypertrophied tentacle, which can even stretch up to six times the diameter of the jellyfish’s bell.
After 15 years of research, MBARI experts have collected enough details about the morphological and molecular characteristics to describe a new type of these unique jellyfish: as Atolla reynoldsi.
“We named this impressive new species in honor of Jeff Reynolds, in recognition of the 4.3 million hours of service he and other volunteers have contributed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium over the past 38 years,” said George Matsumoto, of MBARI.
The Atolla reynoldsi jellyfish is relatively large compared to other Atolla species. The largest specimen collected by the team was 13 centimeters in diameter, one of the largest in the genus.
The rim of the bell resembles a crown, giving this group of jellyfish their royal name.
“It is clear that Atolla reynoldsi is molecularly different from the Atolla species that we have been able to collect and that it is morphologically different from the ten described Atolla species,” the experts clarify.
“The two additional types, Atolla species A and Atolla species B , may also be new species, but we don’t have enough samples at this time to make that claim ,” they conclude.
Reference: George I. Matsumoto et al. 2022. Atolla reynoldsi sp. nov. A New Species of Coronate Scyphozoan Found in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean. Animals 12 (6): 742; doi: 10.3390/ani12060742
