Introduction II. How many species of Asteronyx in the world?

 

Molecular phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial 16S rRNA regions of specimens from Japan (Red, Blue), North Sea (Green) and New Caledonia (Light Green) .

Recently, I added molecular data of specimens of Asteronyx loveni from North Sea and New Caledonia (Data available from web database) and reconstructed molecular phylogenetic tree. Surprisingly, specimens from North sea and New Caledonia are closely related to one lineage in Japan despite the over several km geographical distances between the specimens. This evidence indicates that there maybe real "A. loveni" with having wide distribution. However, small sublineages are also detected in the Japan + North Sea + New Caledonia lineage, suggesting existences of more new (sub) species. It also provoke the question that, how many species are distributed in other deep sea areas.