2.1. Sampling
Specimens were collected during the campaign Mission Antarctique,on board the R/V Sedna IV in 2006, and the Summer Antarctic Campaigns in
2007/2008, by SCUBA diving between 20m and 30m depth; in the campaign
BENTART-06, Antarctic Project of the “Bio Hespérides” (2006), the
campaign ANT XXIX/3 in 2013, and the campaign PD BB April 17, on board
the R/V A.R.A. Puerto Deseado in Burdwood Bank/MPA Namuncurá 2017
(BB/MPAN), the samples were obtained by bottom trawls nets at depths
between 120m and 138m. Fourteen sampling stations were distributed along
the Antarctic Peninsula and one in South America in NMPA/BB (Fig. 3),
the naming of sampling stations was done in the base of the SCAR
Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (last update 2014). The samples were
conserved in denatured ethanol 96% (Sigma-Aldrich, Argentina) until DNA
extraction.
Samples for morphological analyses were collected in January 2018 by
SCUBA diving between 20m and 30m depth on soft substrate at Potter Cove
(Carlini Station, King George Island, Antarctica). Twenty-three
specimens were relaxed using menthol crystals (TodoDroga, Argentina),
animals were placed in big trays and submerged in seawater, menthol
crystals were placed inside the trays, after two hours a probe was
inserted into an open siphon to check if there was absolutely no
response If there was still a response the animals were kept there for
another hour, after complete relaxation the animals were fixed in
denatured ethanol 96%. The examined material for morphological analyses
is stored in the collection of the Museo de Zoología, Universidad
Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina.