Morphology and phylogenetic analysis of two new deep-sea species of (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Chrysogorgiidae) from Kocebu Guyot (Magellan seamounts) in the Pacific Ocean.

Two new species of Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 collected from Kocebu Guyot in the Magellan seamounts of the Pacific Ocean are described and illustrated: collected from a depth of 1831 m and collected from a depth of 1669 m. belongs to the "group A, Spiculosae" with rods distributed in body wall and tentacles, and belongs to the "group C, Squamosae typicae" with rods and/or spindles not present but only scales. differs from congeners by its main stem with 2/5R branching sequence at the bottom forming two large bottlebrush-shaped branches with 1/3R branching sequence at the top. is similar to Bayer & Stefani, 1988, but differs by its larger polyps, larger sclerites in the body wall, and different scales in the upper part of polyps. The mtMutS genetic distances between and and congeners are in the range of 0.33%-2.28% and 0.33%-2.94%, respectively, while the intraspecific distances are in the range of 0-0.16%. Molecular phylogenetic analysis indicates that is clustered with Cairns, 2007 and is clustered with Bayer & Stefani, 1988, both with high support indicating close relationships.