Catalog of ophiuroidea from southeastern coast of Iran (Northern parts of Oman sea)

Introduction Chabahar Bay is located in southeastern coast of Iran and the northern part of the Oman Sea in the geographic area of ۲۵°۲۲́ ۴۷˝N  and ۶۰°۳۹́  ۹۰˝E. This Bay with having a variety of coverings, such as, muddy, stone, sandy and rocky, has provided possibility of life for different taxa, such as, shellfish, mollusks, echinoderm ( Ghanbarifardi and Malek, ۲۰۰۹; Yazdani et al., ۲۰۰۹; Sadeghi and Loghmani, ۲۰۱۰; Khaleghi and Owfi, ۲۰۱۱; Fazeli et al., ۲۰۱۳; Attaran et al., ۲۰۱۴). Ophiuroids are relatively small echinoderms that all live in marine habitats, such as, sandy, rocky, stony, muddy, on sponge and corals (Barnes et al., ۲۰۰۱). Ophiuroids with above ۲,۰۰۰ species are a big group of echinodermata distributed in all marine environments from polar to the equator, and from the intertidal to subtidal zone (Pawson, ۲۰۰۷). In the present study, ophiuroids species are identified based on their morphological features and introduced from Chabahar bay.  

Keywords:

Ophiuroidea , Morphology , Chabahar Bay , Iran