Atlas of Atlantic Ostracods
Taxon details
Metaconchoecia fowleri (Gooday, 1981)
- Order:
- MYODOCOPA
- Suborder:
- Halocypridina
- Family:
- Halocyprididae
- Subfamily:
- Conchoecinae
- Size range (females):
- 1.10-1.28 mm
- Size range (males):
- 1.06-1.30 mm
- Depth:
- mesopelagic
Notes
221 records
This is one of the species described by Gooday (1981) when he revised what he termed the ‘skogsbergi’ complex, i.e. the species that fell within the ‘long form’ concept of C. rotundata (Müller, 1906). Iles (1953) had given the name Conchoecia skogsbergi to Müller’s long form based on Skogsberg’s (1920) description of Southern Ocean material as the type description. When examining Atlantic material Gooday (1981) identified six new species, including this one. Few other researchers have subsequently identified this species, so records of its range - 60°N to 64°S - are mostly from the Atlantic and are unlikely to be fully representative. Gooday (1981) identified this species in samples from the Dana, Tiefsee, Siboga and Hudson (Deevey, 1974) expeditions. Kock (1992) designated it as the type species for Metaconchoecia, but his designation post-dated Kempf’s (1986) designation of rotundata.
The bathymetric profiles show that it is most abundant at depths of 500-800m, or even slightly shallower at low latitudes, possibly in a response to the equatorial doming in the temperature profiles. It tends to be replaced by discoveryi as the depth increases.
| Equator | n | Mean mm | s.d. | Range mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 227 | 1.18 | 0.041 | 1.10-1.28 |
| Male | 199 | 1.15 | 0.047 | 1.10-1.30 |
| A-1 | 153 | 0.91 | 0.031 | 0.84-1.00 |
| A-2 | 88 | 0.68 | 0.031 | 0.60-0.74 |
| NEA | n | Mean mm | s.d. | Range mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 414 | 1.17 | 0.033 | 1.10-1.26 |
| Male | 323 | 1.15 | 0.028 | 1.06-1.22 |
| A-1 | 273 | 0.94 | 0.039 | 0.84-1.02 |
| A-2 | 200 | 0.73 | 0.035 | 0.62-0.82 |
