Language: English, with bilingual abstract in English and French
Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos. a continuation of Résultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM, is a series dedicated to the inventory and description of the deep-sea fauna of the world. The present volume includes for the first time results from recent expeditions off Papua New Guinea.
Papua New Guinea always had a special place in the heart of marine biologists. Firstly but barely explored during the expedition of the Challenger (1875), there remained a gap in the knowledge on the deep-sea fauna from Papua New Guinea until the recent series of expeditions launched by MNHN: Biopapua (2010), Papua Niugini (2012), Madeep (2014) and Kavieng (2014). From the amazing sampling of benthic fauna, the international network of naturalists and taxonomists, federated around the Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos program, has described since 2012 more than 258 new species of molluscs, fishes, sea-spiders, corals, and crustaceans. This special PNG volume comprises descriptions and new occurrences for more than 360 species including cirripeds, crabs, armoured shrimps, ghost shrimps, and squat lobsters. Many are illustrated by spectacular colour images of freshly caught specimens. With 44 news species of crustaceans described in this volume, more than 300 new marine species have been discovered around Papua New Guinea and its satellite islands.
Laure Corbari is a research scientist at the French Museum national d'Histoire Naturelle. Shane T. Ahyong is a senior research scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Tin-Yam Chan is professor of the Institute of Marine Biology at the National Taiwan Ocean University.