Ophiomyxa pentagona

Cynthia D. Trowbridge We found a brittle star that seemed different than others we had seen for the last 12 years or so in Ireland. Unfortunately we did not get any more photos of it :-( and it was in our no-take sectors so we could not key it out. Could it be Ophiomyxa pentagona? I welcome your thoughts?

Sabine Stöhr Unfortunately, the image is not good enough for an id. It seems to me that it has granules on the disc, rubbed of in a couple of spots. A wild guess would be Ophiocomina nigra with some kind of colour abnormality. Ophiomyxa pentagona is endemic to the Mediterranean in my mind. I would really need to see the mouth parts for a better guess.

Sabine Stöhr O. nigra has an astonishing colour variation from dark brown to orange yellow (Fontaine 1962). See the abstract here http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=4230496

Cynthia D. Trowbridge WOW.... thank you so much for the link. Thank you also for your insightful comments in FB and email :-)