The Banda Sea: A hotspot of deep-sea echinoderms diversity in Indonesia

Abstract

A list of Echinodermata fauna recorded from the Banda Sea has been compiled from the literature published between 1889-1995 as well as from the LIPI-RCO reference collection. To date, 44 species from five extant classes (Asteroidea, Ophiuroidea, Crinoidea, Echinoidea, and Holothuroidea) have been recorded from this area that consisting of the epipelagic (< 200 m depth), mesopelagic (200-1000 m depths) and bathypelagic (> 1000 m depth) species. Research history, taxonomy, and depth distribution are briefly discussed here. However, deep-sea habitats all over the world remain unexplored, including the Banda trench. The opportunity to discover both new records and new species for science from this trench is still wide open since the hitherto record of its marine biodiversity is still a few compared to the discovery on the shallow water. More deep-sea exploration will be needed to improve our knowledge of marine biodiversity.