In general, Paulia horrida is a poorly known species, with no records of its life cycle and ecology.
The first record of P. horridawas described by H.L. (Clark 1910) comprised the area of Punta Santa Elena, in Ecuador, extending towards the Galapagos Islands. Subsequently, (Rowe 1977) hypothesised that P. horrida was potentially present in the Peruvian coast, which was later confirmed by Hooker and Solís-Marín (2011), who collected an R= 84mm specimen at a depth of 33 m on a rocky reef in Punta Sal, northern Peru. Furthermore, A.M. (Clark 1993) incorporated some localities in his checklist suggesting Baja California, Mexico, as the northernmost distributional limit of the species, also including the localities of Isla Clarión and Isla del Coco, both located in Costa Rica. Finally, (Maluf 1987) broadened the distribution of the species confirming the Galapagos Islands as part of the distributional range ofP. horrida.
In this report, a single specimen of P. horrida was collected off the coast of northern Chile, expanding the already known geographical distribution of the species by approximately 2,434 km towards the South. The specimen had an R = 65 mm, which provides some insights of the size variation of the species when comparing it with other records such as, for example, Hooker and Solís-Marín (2011) who reported a larger, R = 84mm radius, specimen.
The discovery of P. horrida in Chilean waters allows us to incorporate it to the Chilean asteroid fauna, opening the possibility of its presence at even southern latitudes along the Chilean coasts. This needs to be confirmed through further sampling of the species in such latitudes. Moreover, in light of the current scenario of global biodiversity loss and the necessity to carry out effective conservation measures, this expansion of the distributional range of this species represents an invaluable opportunity to gain further knowledge of this species.