Seven new species, two representing the genus Pycnophyes and five species of Echinoderes, are described from the Arctic waters of West Greenland. Keys to the adults of both genera are included. To determine the diversity and relative abundance of the kinorhynch fauna, samples of subtidal sediment were collected along the long axes of Disko Bay and Disko Fjord at depths of 6.5 m to 300 m. One species was found at only a single locality; others were more widely distributed and most abundant in the more protected confines of the fjord or deeper water of the bay. No kinorhynchs were found in sediments directly affected by glacial meltwater. Accounts of the first five of six stages in the life history of one of the two species of Pycnophyes are included in the description of that species.
North Atlantic
Biodiversity, Taxonomic and ecological diversity
Marine interstitial
Meiobenthos
Morphology
