Research Study 1

In a fairly recent paper a consortium of Russian and Canadian scientists splits the commonly designated snakelock anemone Cribrinopsis fernaldi into two species based upon morphological and molecular data. The first, the one we usually consider as C. fernaldi, is larger with longer tentacles, has a conspicuous ring of marginal projections (verrucae) around the top of the column, has a white column with pinkish tentacles, and usually inhabits muddy bottoms. The other, now designated as C. rubens n. sp. is smaller with shorter tentacles, unformly red or white in colour, and inhabits rocky habitats. The two species also differ in their complements of cnidae (nematocysts). 

Fig. 1.  Snakelock anemone Cribrinopsis fernaldi with inset showing close view of verrucae on the upper column rim  

Fig. 2.  Sea anemone Cribrinopsis rubens n. sp. on rock wall showing red and white colour morphs

Courtesy Neil McDaniel, Vancouver, British Columbia

Research Study 2

Fig. 1. Urtibrina rimicola newly described from Graham Island, British Columbia. It inhabits crevices in low intertidal and shallow subtidal areas to a depth of about 5m, favouring open-coast locations

Courtesy Neil McDaniel, Vancouver, British Columbia

In a later, related publication the same Russian and Canadian research group add a new genus and species to a well-known anemone taxonomic group, the Family Tealidae.  The new addition is Urtibrina rimicola (Fig. 1) discovered in mid-British Columbia waters near Graham Island by the well-known Canadian SCUBA photographer Neil McDaniel. Other than the Graham Island habitat, the species has been seen as far south as Cape Flattery, Washington, and is apparently common along the west coast of Vancouver Island.  The authors provide up-to-date phylogenies of the related genera Cribrinopsis, Urticina, and Urtibrina (n. genus), as well as keys to F.  Tealidae and the three genera noted. 

Research Study 3

Fig. 1.  Drawing of Actinia dianthus, taken from a nature book written by John Ellis in 1768.  Many decades of taxonomic revision have confirmed that this representation was actually Metridium senile

Fig. 2.  Plumose anemones in a public aquarium.  All are thought by the authors to be clones of M. senile but, by the large size of two of them, a naive reader might confuse these ones for M. farcimen.  This latter species is known to reach 1m in height, much bigger than the two individuals featured here

Courtesy the authors

Interest in the taxonomy of plumose anemones Metridium spp. seems never to cease.  It is now well into its 3rd Century of discourse, having begun "officially" in 1768 with a published description of Actinia dianthus, one of the earliest names applied to present-day Metridium senile in Britain by John Ellis (Fig. 1).   After this early naming, over three dozen other scientific names were applied to the anemone before the present name was credited to Linnaeus, 1761.  Most recently,  a group of American and Chinese evolutionists and taxonomists re-analysed the taxonomy of the species and confirmed the following:

1.  the genus Metridium has two valid species: farcimen and senile (Fig. 2)

2.  three other species names proposed through the history of the naming are considered junior synonyms (dianthus, exile, canum).  Two others huanghaiense and sinensis, formerly with junior-synonym status, were later synonymised with senile.

The authors provide a fascinating account of the confusion generated by many taxonomists, often working on their own in many countries, applying name after name to the same organism, and then unknowingly leaving the entire mess for someone else to resolve.

NOTE  John Ellis was a British linen merchant and a naturalist in his spare time, with special interest in corals and their sea-anemone relatives

NOTE  these are names proposed for a species or taxon that were published after another name for the same organism had been proposed (the senior synonym).  The  older name usually, but not always, takes precedence