Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Octocorallia (also known as Alcyonaria) is a class of Anthozoa comprising over 3,000 species [1] of marine organisms formed of colonial polyps with 8-fold symmetry. It includes the blue coral, soft corals, sea pens, and gorgonians (sea fans and sea whips) within three orders: Alcyonacea, Helioporacea, and Pennatulacea. [2]
Erythropodium caribaeorum, commonly known as the encrusting gorgonian or encrusting polyps, is a species of soft coral in the family Anthothelidae. It inhabits coral reefs and rocky bottoms in the Caribbean , Bahamas , and Florida , growing at depths of 0.5 to 25 metres.
Consequently, the term "gorgonian coral" is commonly handed to multiple species in the order Alcyonacea that produce a mineralized skeletal axis (or axial-like layer) composed of calcite and the proteinaceous material gorgonin only and corresponds to only one of several families within the formally accepted taxon Gorgoniidae (Scleractinia).
The coral is densely branched but usually grows in a single plane. The colour varies and is usually some shade of red, orange or deep yellow but purple specimens occasionally occur. The skeleton is not rigid so the whole fan-like structure can sway with the movement of the surrounding water.
Leptogorgia virgulata is a colonial coral averaging about 20 cm (8 in) in height, usually between 15 and 60 cm as an adult, but sometimes reaching 1 metre (3.3 ft). It does not have the rigid calcium carbonate skeleton possessed by the true corals but its stalks have an internal, axial skeleton which is stiffened by sclerites and covered by an outer layer, the coenenchyme.
The skeleton of a bamboo coral; the darker joints are gorgonin nodes. Gorgonin is a flexible [1] scleroprotein [2] [clarification needed] which provides structural strength to gorgonian corals, a subset of the order Alcyonacea. [3] Gorgonian corals have supporting skeletal axes [definition needed] made of gorgonin and/or calcite. [4]
Forreau suspected that pygmy seahorses’ gorgonian coral colonies might yield more of the worms, she told CNN. In 2023, during an unrelated survey in southern Sukumo Bay in Kochi, Japan, she ...
Eunicella verrucosa, the broad sea fan, pink sea fan or warty gorgonian, is a species of colonial Gorgonian "soft coral" in the family Gorgoniidae. It is native to the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean and the western Mediterranean Sea.