Octocorals
Octocorallia
Octocorallia (also known Alcyonaria) is a subclass of Anthozoa comprising around 3,000 species of water-based 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. These organisms have an internal skeleton secreted by mesoglea and polyps with eight tentacles and eight mesentaries. As with all Cnidarians these organisms have a complex life cycle including a...
40 branches of this subclass, most-observed first
Malacalcyonacea
orderMalacalcyonacea
Scleralcyonacea
orderScleralcyonacea
Moolabalia
genusMoolabalia
Canarya
genusCanarya
Trichogorgia
genusTrichogorgia
Ceratocaulon
genusCeratocaulon
Bayergorgia
genusBayergorgia
Haimeidae
familyHaimeidae
Verseveldtia
genusVerseveldtia
Xenogorgia
genusXenogorgia
Scleranthelia
genusScleranthelia
Lanthanocephalus
genusLanthanocephalus
Aspera
genusAspera
Briareopsis
genusBriareopsis
Caliacis
genusCaliacis
Chalcogorgia
genusChalcogorgia
Chondronephthya
genusChondronephthya
Denhartogia
genusDenhartogia
Distichogorgia
genusDistichogorgia
Elasmogorgia
genusElasmogorgia
Flagelligorgia
genusFlagelligorgia
Hypnogorgia
genusHypnogorgia
Ignis
genusIgnis
Inflatocalyx
genusInflatocalyx
Lignopsis
genusLignopsis
Mesogligorgia
genusMesogligorgia
Pseudocladochonus
genusPseudocladochonus
Pseudosuberia
genusPseudosuberia
Pseudothesea
genusPseudothesea
Rolandia
genusRolandia
Sphaeralcyon
genusSphaeralcyon
Speirogorgia
genusSpeirogorgia
Stereacanthia
genusStereacanthia
Stereogorgia
genusStereogorgia
Tesseranthelia
genusTesseranthelia
Thelogorgia
genusThelogorgia
Tubigorgia
genusTubigorgia
Williamsium
genusWilliamsium
Pseudogorgiidae
familyPseudogorgiidae
Daniela
genusDaniela
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Octocorallia in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 340493.