More than 13,000 occurrences records from 295 accepted species have been compiled within the extent of the RAMS area of interest. 198 of these species (67%) were already in the RAMS database and 97 (33%) were new to the system. After this update, the number of Asteroidea species in RAMS will be increased by around 50%.

The seven Orders of the Class Asteroidea are represented in the Southern Ocean. The Valvatida are the most speciose with 8 families, 41 genus and 87 species followed by Forcipulatida (6 families, 30 genus, 78 species), Paxillosida (6 families, 22 genus, 43 species), Velatida (2 families, 6 genus, 37 species), Spinulosida (1 family, 4 genus, 20 species), Brisingida (2 families; 9 genus; 19 species) and Notomyotida (1 family, 4 genus, 2 subgenus, 11 species).

After a careful verification of the RAMS species list for Asteroidea we propose to address the following points. These issues have been taken into account in this paper:

• Cheiraster (Barbadosaster) echinulatus and Stegnaster wesseli are only described from Central America and should be removed from the RAMS list
• Spoladaster veneris is only described from Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands which are not part of the RAMS area of interest
• Anthenoides peircei, Astropecten cingulatus, Cheiraster (Cheiraster) sepitus, Peltaster placenta, and Psilaster herwigi do not seem to be distributed in the RAMS area of interest
• Echinaster (Othilia) brasiliensis is only described from South America and should be removed of the RAMS list​
• Freyella mutabilia was originally described as Freyella mutabila by Korovchinsky (1976)
• Mimastrella cognata and Mirastrella cognata are source of a problem. Both genus do exist but Mimastrella cognata and Mirastrella biradialis are the only described species. The genus name being nearly identical, it has lead to a mistake. Mirastrella cognata is an invalid name and should be deleted from RAMS and WoRMS systems

Moreover, we recommend the addition of species from our "Proposed-RAMS" checklist (i.e. species not registered in the RAMS list but present in the RAMS area of interest) to RAMS. None of these species are new to science but their austral distribution range was not properly documented (e.g. species from the Campbell Plateau are reported as New-Zealand species but are also present in the Southern Ocean, species from the French sub-Antarctic Islands, etc...). Interestingly, 22 of the 97 "non-RAMS" species are present in the Antarctic zone. Some have been described recently (e.g. O. roseus and O. pearsei described by Janosik and Halanych (2010); C. trangae described by Mah (2011) or P. tyleri described by Mah et al. 2015) but have not been added to the RAMS.

A final comment pertains to Astropecten polyacanthus, occurring in the RAMS Sub-Antarctic region in a location that is not actually South from the Sub-Tropical Front. This final observation shows that convenient boundaries should be used with care. However, only one species was concerned for a very wide area of interest. A. polyacanthus presence in the RAMS checklist should be discussed by the editors from RAMS and WoRMS.

This study highlights the fact that after ten years of effort, the work is still in progress for RAMS. The main objective of covering the Antarctic zone has generally been reached for the class Asteroidea but needs at this point to go through a major update by the editors. Regarding the asteroids, the secondary objective of covering the Sub-Antarctic zone lacked the impulse of the scientific community and we hope that the work presented here will fill the gaps as accurately as possible.

This approach may not bring the same results for all the taxa in the Southern Ocean. Indeed some charismatic fauna are very well known in the RAMS area of interest (e.g. marine mammals), however, we believe that the knowledge concerning the number of species present in the Southern Ocean waters might be significantly increased.

Only few mistakes were found in the existing RAMS list of Asteroidea and should be fixed soon after getting in contact with the editors. The new updated checklist of Asteroidea species will be available through the RAMS website (http://www.marinespecies.org/rams) in early 2016. A way to improve the general system, with the sea stars for model is also in development.

Recent work using genetics on Odontaster species (Janosik and Halanych 2010) highlights the fact that diversity might be higher than expected even in well-studied areas. There is also a lack of ressources for identification and taxonomic work leading to redundant mistakes. In this context, the creation of a digital library, hotlinked with the RAMS and compiling original descriptions, literature materials and DNA barcoding informations for each species will bring the RAMS a step ahead and provide a vital tool for future taxonomic and biogeographic work. Perspectives also include an illustrative determination key using a polytomic approach and the creation of interactive Antarctic Field Guides (http://afg.biodiversity.aq) on the http://www.biodiversity.aq platform (Van de Putte et al. 2015) in order to help the scientific community with the identification process and to enhance data availability.

We believe that the homogenization of available data for all taxa will result in a better understanding of the Southern Ocean and its biogeography, especially in the Sub-Antarctic zone.