An Eguchipsammia (Dendrophylliidae) topping on the cone

A reef formed by corals of the azooxanthellate scleractinian genus EguchipsammiaCairns, 1994 (Dendrophylliidae), identified following the morphological descriptions by Zibrowius (1980) and Cairns (2000), was discovered in July 2013 off the Faial-Pico Channel (Azores, Northeast Atlantic). This is the first record of such an extensive living Eguchipsammia framework and the first major discovery by the RebikoffNiggeler Foundation with its recently-inaugurated manned submersible Lula 1000. The recently located reef was found at 280–300 m depth, on the very top of a partially collapsed and rejuvenated volcanic cone (Fig. 1a). This dense framework covers an estimated 1,000 m, with the living bright yellow polyps standing out from the dead skeletons (Fig. 1b–d). The underlying substrate is partially visible, suggesting that the reef is less than 1 m thick. The distribution range of the genus Eguchipsammia in the Atlantic Ocean previously included multiple localities in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, at depths between 9 and 300 m, and southwestern Europe, from the Coral Patch Seamount to the Celtic Sea at depths ranging between 330 to 960 m (Cairns 2000; Wienberg et al. 2013). The present record attests the presence of the genus in the central North Atlantic, filling the gap within its amphi-Atlantic distribution