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In the past, soft corals were thought to be unable to lay new foundations for future corals, but recent findings suggest that colonies of the leather-coral genus Sinularia are able to cement sclerites and consolidate them at their base into alcyonarian spiculite, [10] thus making them reef builders.
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]
Tubipora is a genus of soft coral. It is the only genus within the monotypic family Tubiporidae. Tubipora is a soft coral and has an aragonite skeleton, so they are crucial for building reefs around the world. Also, their red color in their aragonite skeleton is caused by iron salts or something called carotenoids. They also have 8 tentacles. [2]
Sinularia is a genus of soft coral in the family Alcyoniidae. They are commonly known as leather corals and currently have 166 described species in the genus.
Xenia is a genus of photosynthetic soft marine coral in the family Xeniidae. They resemble a mushroom , with "arms" coming out from the top that ends in many-fingered "hands". It is unique among corals because of its ability to use its "hands" to "pulse" or push water away from the colony in a constant, grabbing motion.
Primnoa (Lamororux, 1812) also known as red tree coral, is a genus of soft corals and the type genus of the family Primnoidae (Milne Edwards, 1857). [1] They are sessile, benthic cnidarians that can be found in the North Pacific, North Atlantic, and Subantarctic South Pacific, [2] and its members often play a vital ecological role as keystone species [3] within their environment as a habitat ...
Dead man's fingers is a colonial coral forming clumps of yellow, white or cream-coloured fleshy masses of finger-like lobes. The surface layer include many sclerites which form a crust. [ 2 ] The individual polyps are white and translucent, and project from the leathery surface when feeding, giving the colony a furry appearance.
Melithaea ochracea grows on shallow reefs in the South China Sea between Taiwan and Indonesia.Its range also includes Singapore and Malaysia. [3] In Taiwan, it is the most widespread gorgonian coral and is found on the higher parts of reef fronts where its numerous small polyps can feed at water flow rates varying from 4 to 40 centimetres (1.6 to 15.7 in) per second.