Discovery of Adults Linked to Cloning Oceanic Starfish Larvae (, Asteroidea: Echinodermata).

Two juvenile specimens of a new species of were collected at Parque Nacional Arrecife Alacranes and Triángulos Oeste in the southern Gulf of Mexico. DNA of mitochondrial loci identifies them as members of the same clade as cloning larvae of found abundantly in waters of the Florida Current-Gulf Stream system, and distinct from and , the two known Oreasteridae species in the North Atlantic. Larvae from the new species of persist as clones but also metamorphose and settle to the benthos with typical asteroid morphology.