New genera, species and occurrences of Goniasteridae (Valvatida, Asteroidea) from New Caledonia

The Goniasteridae is the most diverse family of living asteroids, containing the greatest number of described genera and species. Herein, 28 new species, 3 new genera and 19 new records are described from New Caledonia, almost entirely from deep-sea settings (>200 m). An accounting of the goniasterid fauna shows a total of over 70 species, in 38 genera from 3 subfamilies. If this is considered relative to the total known number of goniasterid species, this accounts for nearly 20% of total species and 46% of genera are represented from this region suggesting that the goniasterid diversity in this area is relatively high.