BACKGROUND Coral reefs in the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) are amongst the most peripheral and geographically isolated in the world. This isolation has shaped the biology of TEP organisms and lead to the formation of numerous endemic species. For example, the coral Pocillopora damicornis is a minor reef-builder elsewhere in the Indo-West Pacific, but is the dominant reef-building coral in the...

It has been previously established that the Leopard Whipray, Himantura leoparda, consists of two genetically isolated, cryptic species, provisionally designated as 'Cluster 1' and 'Cluster 4' (Arlyza et al., Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 65 (2013) [1]). Here, we show that the two cryptic species differ by the spotting patterns on the dorsal surface of adults: Cluster-4 individuals tend to have larger-...

Polydora and related genera associated with hermit crabs from shallow subtidal coral reef areas of the Indo-West Pacific are described. Over 2000 hermit crabs were collected from localities in the Philippines and Indonesia between July 1997 and April 1999. In total, 10 species of polychaetes among five genera (Boccardia, Carazziella, Dipolydora, Polydora, and Tripolydora) were identified and de...

[1] The anomalously strong hurricane activity in the Atlantic sector during the recent years led to a controversy about the impact of global warming on hurricane activity in the Atlantic sector. Here we show that the temperature difference between the tropical North Atlantic and the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans (IndoPacific) is a key parameter in controlling the vertical wind shear over t...

echinoids fauna are common and distributed in the lower miocene deposits of the bagher abad area, northeast isfahan, central iran.there are six echinoid taxa belonging to the echinoidea class that can be described as: clypeaster intermedius, prinocidaris sp. andspines related to: eucidaris zaemays, stylocidaris polyacantha, spatangoid sp. and prinocidaris sp. bivalves, foraminifers,bryozoans, b...

Language is a clear indicator of political change. As China continues to rise and expand its influence in the South Seas, threatened neighboring states will balance against it. One step this process formulation persuading language concepts accept threat posed by China. This demonstrated invention use term Indo-Pacific, an area from eastern part Africa west United States east. article traces gen...

First observations are reported of predator-prey relationships among gastropod mollusks of the depauperate, Indo-West Pacific derivative, intertidal and shallow subtidal benthic fauna of Easter Island. Conus miliaris, which will be reported in detail in a separate paper, and Pisania decapitata englerli prey on polychaete annelids; Mitraflavocingulata preys on sipunculans; and Neothais nesiotes ...

Avicennia L. (Avicenniaceae), one of the most diverse mangrove genera, is distributed widely in tropical and subtropical intertidal zones worldwide. Five species of Avicennia in the Indo-West Pacific region have been previously described. However, their phylogenetic relationships were determined based on morphological and allozyme data. To enhance our understanding of evolutionary patterns in t...

Pyrgomatid barnacles are a family of balanomorphs uniquely adapted to symbiosis on corals. The evolution of the coral-dwelling barnacles is explored using a multi-gene phylogeny (COI, 16S, 12S, 18S, and H3) and phenotypic trait-mapping. We found that the hydrocoral associate Wanella should be excluded, while some archaeobalanids in the genus Armatobalanus should be included in the Pyrgomatidae....

A new species of portunid crab (Brachyura: Portunidae) from southern Madagascar and central Philippines is described. Monomia calla sp. nov. is most similar in morphology to M. lecromi (Moosa, 1996) from the Chesterfield Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, and M. rubromarginata (Lanchester, 1900) from the South China Sea, Singapore, Malay Archipelago and the northern half of Australia. T...