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Red sea fingers is similar in shape to Alcyonium digitatum but is usually blood red or rust coloured. The finger-shaped lobes are slender and can be up to thirty centimetres long. The polyps are white and each one has eight pinnate tentacles which give the colony a feathery appearance when they are extended. [2]
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).
Each pygmy seahorse stays on the same coral for its entire adult life. The young settle onto a host and over a few days take on its exact colour and texture, accounting for the wide variation in adults, but typically red, orange, or yellow. They grow up to 2.4 cm long. [9] They have smooth skin with few tubercles.
The sea fan colony grows up to about 30 cm high, with branches of between 2 and 4 mm. It is bushy with thin cylindrical branches which are often tangled or joined. The polyps emerge from knobs on the surface of the colony. It is variably coloured, with the colony being red, yellow, white or pink, and the individual polyps being white, yellow or ...
Hippocampus bargibanti, also known as Bargibant's seahorse or the pygmy seahorse, is a seahorse of the family Syngnathidae found in the central Indo-Pacific area. [3]This pygmy seahorse is tiny—usually less than 2 centimetres (0.79 in) in size—and lives exclusively on gorgonian sea-fans, as its coloration and physical features expertly mimic the coral for camouflage. [4]
Research has shown that measurements of the gorgonin and calcite within species of gorgonian corals can be useful in paleoclimatology and paleoceanography.Studies of the growth, composition, and structure of the skeleton of certain species of gorgonians, (e.g., Primnoa resedaeformis, and Plexaurella dichotoma) can be highly correlated with seasonal and climatic variation.
Eunicella verrucosa has a densely branching, fan-like stem and usually grows in a single plane. It orientates itself at right angles to the direction of water movement and can grow to a height of 50 cm (20 in), although 25 cm (10 in) is a more usual size.
Briareum asbestinum, commonly known as the corky sea finger, is a species of a soft coral in the family Briareidae. [1] It inhabits coral reefs and rocky bottoms in the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Florida, often growing to 30 cm at depths of one to 40 metres.