ANTARCTIC BENTHOS
59
because no specialist seems to have been able to discuss them in a way
which makes them intelligible to a general biologist. Perhaps they are
indeed a difficult group to present in an understandable fashion.
Taking the Antarctic to cover the area so defined in the present
work, Rogick (1965) gave a total of about 321 species (Bullivant gives a
total of 310 species and subspecies.) Of these 179 are known exclusively
from the Antarctic, giving about 58% as endemic. Rogick (1966,
p. 403) lists the 179 endemic Antarctic species grouped as follows:
Entoprocta ( l ) , Ctenostomata (2), Cyclostomata or Stenolaemata (18),
Cheilostomata Anasca (fig), and Cheilostomata Ascophora (69). She
divided the Antarctic into nine sections, each of approximately 40°,
and analysed the 179 endemic species according to their distribution.
The major conclusions were that the area around the Antarctic Peninsula yielded the greatest number of species with Kaiser Wilhelm,
Victoria and Adelie Land sectors also showing good counts. As would
be true of many other groups analysed in this fashion, what is really
demonstrated is the degree of collecting effort that has been put into
specific areas. This plus the fact that some 89 species proved to be
known only from one sector seems further evidence that the Antarctio
bryozoan fauna has not yet been well collected,
Of the remaining 142 species found in the Antarctic but not confined to this area, Rogick states that they have been reported from
warmer, more northerly waters about Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, South America and elsewhere. Bullivant (1969, p. 23) reported
that a greater number of these (about 44 species) had also been recorded
from the southern South AmericGFalkland Islands area than from the
Australian-New Zealand region (about 8 species).
Bullivant (1969) has raised the point that the cosmopolitan shallowwater species Bugula neritina (Linnaeus) apparently first recorded from
the Antarctic by Redier (1965) may well have been accidentally introduced into Antarctic waters on the bottoms of ships, and has suggested
that to follow its future possible spread would be a useful study.
Hastings (1943) found the position of the Antarctic Convergence
an important boundary in the distribution of the Antarctic group of
Bryozoa. The great majority of the species she dealt with fell either
into the Antarctic or the Subantarctic as split by the Antarctic Convergence with very few species occurring in both. On the basis of the
Bryozoa, Hastings would unhesitatingly include Bouvet Island in the
Antarctic, but would exclude Marion and Prince Edward Islands, the
Crozets and Heard Island as Subantarctic. Thus Hastings’ Antarctic
region is essentially the same as that accepted as such in the introduction to this work.
59
because no specialist seems to have been able to discuss them in a way
which makes them intelligible to a general biologist. Perhaps they are
indeed a difficult group to present in an understandable fashion.
Taking the Antarctic to cover the area so defined in the present
work, Rogick (1965) gave a total of about 321 species (Bullivant gives a
total of 310 species and subspecies.) Of these 179 are known exclusively
from the Antarctic, giving about 58% as endemic. Rogick (1966,
p. 403) lists the 179 endemic Antarctic species grouped as follows:
Entoprocta ( l ) , Ctenostomata (2), Cyclostomata or Stenolaemata (18),
Cheilostomata Anasca (fig), and Cheilostomata Ascophora (69). She
divided the Antarctic into nine sections, each of approximately 40°,
and analysed the 179 endemic species according to their distribution.
The major conclusions were that the area around the Antarctic Peninsula yielded the greatest number of species with Kaiser Wilhelm,
Victoria and Adelie Land sectors also showing good counts. As would
be true of many other groups analysed in this fashion, what is really
demonstrated is the degree of collecting effort that has been put into
specific areas. This plus the fact that some 89 species proved to be
known only from one sector seems further evidence that the Antarctio
bryozoan fauna has not yet been well collected,
Of the remaining 142 species found in the Antarctic but not confined to this area, Rogick states that they have been reported from
warmer, more northerly waters about Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, South America and elsewhere. Bullivant (1969, p. 23) reported
that a greater number of these (about 44 species) had also been recorded
from the southern South AmericGFalkland Islands area than from the
Australian-New Zealand region (about 8 species).
Bullivant (1969) has raised the point that the cosmopolitan shallowwater species Bugula neritina (Linnaeus) apparently first recorded from
the Antarctic by Redier (1965) may well have been accidentally introduced into Antarctic waters on the bottoms of ships, and has suggested
that to follow its future possible spread would be a useful study.
Hastings (1943) found the position of the Antarctic Convergence
an important boundary in the distribution of the Antarctic group of
Bryozoa. The great majority of the species she dealt with fell either
into the Antarctic or the Subantarctic as split by the Antarctic Convergence with very few species occurring in both. On the basis of the
Bryozoa, Hastings would unhesitatingly include Bouvet Island in the
Antarctic, but would exclude Marion and Prince Edward Islands, the
Crozets and Heard Island as Subantarctic. Thus Hastings’ Antarctic
region is essentially the same as that accepted as such in the introduction to this work.