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Despite being dominated by "soft corals", the order Alcyonacea now contains all species known as "gorgonian corals", that produce a hard skeleton made from gorgonin, a protein unique to the group that makes their skeletons quite different from "true" corals (Scleractinia).
Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mouth is fringed with tentacles. Although some species are solitary, most are colonial.
There are two main classifications for corals: hard coral (scleractinian and stony coral) [13] which form reefs by a calcium carbonate base, with polyps that bear six stiff tentacles, [14] and soft coral (Alcyonacea and ahermatypic coral) [13] which are pliable and formed by a colony of polyps with eight feather-like tentacles. [14]
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]
Instead it refers most commonly to the hardened parts of arthropod exoskeletons and the internal spicules of invertebrates such as certain sponges and soft corals. In paleontology , a scleritome is the complete set of sclerites of an organism, often all that is known from fossil invertebrates.
These organisms are formed of individual soft polyps which in some species live in colonies and can secrete a calcite skeleton. As with all Cnidarians, these organisms have a complex life cycle including a motile planktonic phase and a later characteristic sessile phase. Hexacorallia also include the significant extinct order of rugose corals.
The majority of corallivores feed on stony coral, however, a few species feed on soft coral. [5] There are no known obligate soft coral feeder; soft coral is estimated to be a small percentage of the diet of soft coral feeders. [5] The most common genera of coral consumed are Acropora, Pocillopora, Montipora, and Porites.
Coralliidae, also known as precious corals, is a taxonomic family of soft corals belonging to the suborder Scleraxonia of the phylum Cnidaria. [1] These sessile corals are one of the most dominant members of hard-bottomed benthic environments such as seamounts, canyons and continental shelves. [2]