Rengaiyan Periasamy

NATIONAL CENTRE FOR POLAR AND OCEAN RESEARCH | NCPOR · Hydrothermal Studies Group

There are currently 163 species of Geodia Lamarck, 1815 described worldwide, many of which are found in deep waters, but none of which have been recorded from the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). Spicule morphology and barcodes (Folmer COI, 28S (C2–D2), partial 18S) suggest that a specimen of Geodia collected on the SWIR at a depth of 2236 m is close...

Underwater sampling via SCUBA and grab at the Angria Bank coral reefs off the central west coast of India in January 2014 revealed 11 species of Brachyura. Seven species, namely, Thusaenys irami (Laurie, 1906), Tanaocheles bidentata (Nobili, 1901), Portunus convexus De Haan, 1835, Xiphonectes macrophthalmus (Rathbun, 1906), Thalamita gatavakensis N...

Explorations of the ridge system in the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) resulted in the collection of two black coral specimens. Based on the black coral morphology Dendrobathypathes isocrada Opresko in (Zool Meded 76:411–442, 2002) is being reported as the first record from the seamount (1917 m) in the CIR, the second...

Bamboo corals are a subclass of cnidarian anthozoans in the family Keratoisididae Gray, 1870. Most of the bamboo coral species are known from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This study reports on two new species of bamboo corals (Dokidisis krishanani sp. Nov. and Adinisis oblonga sp. Nov.) from the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) system seamounts, usin...

Abstract Submerged carbonate banks are of significant geological and biological importance and relatively little is known about the biodiversity of these deeper and less accessible habitats. This study provides pilot information on the biodiversity and spatial distribution of the coral reef communities in Angria Bank, a submerged carbonate platfo...

Telestula ridgensis sp. nov. is a deep-sea octocoral species collected from the Central Indian Ridges (CIR) seamount. The megabenthic communities were sampled from the depths between 1917 and 2053 m using a benthic sledge. It forms part of a baseline environmental and benthic ecological assessment. All these data will be functional in assessing the...

The high diversity and endemism of benthic species on seamounts are extensively documented. Although the number of squat lobster species from seamount habitats has increased, species from the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) systems remain largely unknown. The hydrothermally active Indian Ridge system harbours potential...

We identified a rarely found deep-sea polynoid polychaete Bathymoorea, in association with a hexactinellid sponge (Dictyaulus sp.) during our marine mineral exploration expedition in the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). The genus Bathymoorea appears to be restricted to the deep sea and currently includes two valid species described from the northeast...

The sponge-associated benthic shrimp Spongicoloides weijiaensis Xu, Zhou & Wang, 2017 is reported for the first time from the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). A single female specimen of S.weijiaensis was associated with the hexactinellid sponge belonging to Dictyaulus sp. that was collected using a benthic sledge from the southwest Indian Ridge at a...

Deep-sea sponges are an imperative component of benthos. They accumulate the suspended organic matter by filtering large quantities of water and, with their intricate structures, provide the most suitable habitats for various associated organisms. We describe three new cadorhizid sponges from the Central Indian Ridge (CIR), Indian Ocean. The sponge...

We describe a new deep-sea sponge species, Fibulia occiensis sp. nov., from the Central Indian Ocean Ridge (CIOR) at Rodrigues Triple Junction (RTJ), of the family Dendoricellidae Hentschel, 1923. Two sponge specimens were collected between 1982–2079 m depth using a benthic sledge in the 25° South Oceanic Core Complex (OCC) region. The megabenthic...

The deep-sea blind lobster Willemoesia forceps A. Milne-Edwards, 1880 was collected at a water depth of 3433 m and is reported for the first time from the Central Indian Ridge (CIR). The species was identified based on morphological examination and supported by mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I (mtCOI) gene. The phylogenetic analysis shows...

The honeycomb worm Sabellaria chandraae is the most common reef-building polychaete in the intertidal area along the south-eastern Arabian Sea. We used the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtCOI) gene to examine the levels of genetic variation the population. The samples were collected from seven intertidal areas along the south-easter...

The shallow coral reef ecosystems along the Indian coast are being threatened by anthropogenic global ocean warming and increased frequency of coral bleaching in the recent past. Identification and conservation of deeper reef habitats are essential as they serve as a source of larvae and livestock to replenish the shallow reef habitats. Information...

The limited DNA sequence data of the polychaetes species are available from the Eastern Arabian Sea. We have sequenced 18S rDNA gene from 54 polychaetes species and 37 species identified up to the species level. The DNA bar-coding data provides for molecular identification of benthic polychaetes that will provide imminent into drivers of species di...

Isolated population of Indian horseshoe crabs, Tachy-pleus gigas plays an important role in the ecology of several marine organisms, and is being scrutinized for its abundance and morphology by many researchers. However, limited information is available about its genetic variability and evolution. Samples of horseshoe crab were collected from the e...

The analysis of changes in macrobenthic community using multivariate statistical techniques has been applied to find the structure by the environmental condition. The aim of the study was to evaluate macrofaunal community patterns between natural occurrence of coastal hypoxia condition (30 to 100 m depth) and normoxic bottom waters over the Southea...

The Grande Island, located at the central west coast of India is one of the less studied coral reef systems in India. In this study, we provide a comprehensive description of the coral community structure and health status of corals across the spatial scales at different depths in Grande Island. Such descriptions provide a baseline for evaluating f...

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome of the Spadenose shark Scoliodon laticaudus has been determined for the first time in this study. It was 16,695 bp in length and consisted of 37 genes with typical gene order in vertebrate mitogenome. The nucleotide base content of S. laticaudus mitogenome was 31.5% A, 23.7% C, 13.2% G and 31.6% T. Two sta...