MANILA, Philippines鈥擳wo new species of sea stars have been discovered in the Philippines, the National Museum announced last Friday.
The two species, scientifically named Hyalinothrix diversus and Hyalinothrix vitrispinum, were found off Balut Island at depths of around 150 to 250 meters.
The National Museum via Facebook described the new discoveries as 鈥渧ariably shaped and elongate glassine spined sea star species.鈥�
The two have been included in the Zootaxa article 鈥淣ew species and occurrence records of Japanese Solasteridae and Ganeriidae including a new species of Paralophaster from the North Pacific with an overview of Hyalinothrix鈥� described and authored by Dr. Christopher Mah of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and Dr. Toshihiko Fujita of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tsukuba, Japan.
The name H. diversus stemmed from the Latin word 鈥渄iversus,鈥� for the species displays an 鈥渦nusually diverse morphology of the plates on the body surface鈥� which is known as 鈥減axillae,鈥� according to the National Museum.
H. vitrispinum meanwhile was derived from the Latin word 鈥渧itrum,鈥� meaning glass or glassy, and 鈥渟pinum鈥� for the elongate glassine spines covering the surface plates present on this species.
鈥淭he article鈥檚 main focus is the discovery of six new records and four undescribed species of sea stars from Japanese waters with records of occurrence in the Philippines resulting from the study of the asteroid collections at the National Museum of Nature and Science (NSMT) in Tsukuba, Japan,鈥� the National Museum noted.