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.