Clavularia frankliniana

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Clavularia frankliniana
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Anthozoa
Order: Alcyonacea
Family: Clavulariidae
Genus: Clavularia
Species:
C. frankliniana
Binomial name
Clavularia frankliniana
Roule, 1902 [1]

Clavularia frankliniana is a species of colonial soft coral in the family Clavulariidae. It is found in the southern Atlantic Ocean and the waters around Antarctica. It was first described in 1902 by the French zoologist Louis Roule. [1]

Contents

Description

Clavularia frankliniana is a stoloniferous soft coral. It forms small colonies of polyps with eight tentacles which are up to 1 cm (0.4 in) high and are usually white. [2]

Distribution and habitat

Clavularia frankliniana is native to the Antarctic Peninsula, the coasts of the Antarctic continent and the nearby island groups. It occurs at depths down to about 600 m (2,000 ft) and grows on rocks or other hard substrates. [1] [2]

Ecology

This coral contains the chemical unpalatable chimyl alcohol for defensive purposes. [2] This is insufficient to prevent the nudibranch Tritoniella belli from feeding on it, and the nudibranch incorporates the substance into its own tissues, making it distasteful to predatory starfish such as Odontaster validus , Perknaster fuscus and Acodontaster conspicuus . [3] Reproduction in this coral can occur at any time of year and is by fission or by sexual reproduction, with the release of larvae. [2]

Related Research Articles

Coral Marine invertebrates of the class Anthozoa

Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.

Nudibranch Order of gastropods

Nudibranchs are a group of soft-bodied, marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have been given colourful nicknames to match, such as "clown," "marigold," "splendid," "dancer," "dragon," or "sea rabbit." Currently, about 3,000 valid species of nudibranchs are known.

Anthozoa Class of cnidarians without a medusa stage

Anthozoa is a class of marine invertebrates which includes the sea anemones, stony corals and soft corals. Adult anthozoans are almost all attached to the seabed, while their larvae can disperse as part of the plankton. The basic unit of the adult is the polyp; this consists of a cylindrical column topped by a disc with a central mouth surrounded by tentacles. Sea anemones are mostly solitary, but the majority of corals are colonial, being formed by the budding of new polyps from an original, founding individual. Colonies are strengthened by calcium carbonate and other materials and take various massive, plate-like, bushy or leafy forms.

Black coral Order of soft deep-water corals with chitin skeletons

Antipatharians, also known as black corals or thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals. These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, surrounded by the polyps. Antipatharians are a cosmopolitan order, existing at nearly every location and depth, with the sole exception of brackish waters. However, they are most frequently found on continental slopes under 50 m (164 ft) deep. A black coral reproduces both sexually and asexually throughout its lifetime. Many black corals provide housing, shelter, food, and protection for other animals.

Charles Eliot (diplomat) British diplomat, colonial administrator and botanist

Sir Charles Norton Edgcumbe Eliot was a British diplomat, colonial administrator and botanist. He served as Commissioner of British East Africa in 1900–1904. He was British Ambassador to Japan in 1919–1925.

Fragmentation in multicellular or colonial organisms is a form of asexual reproduction or cloning, where an organism is split into fragments. Each of these fragments develop into mature, fully grown individuals that are clones of the original organism.

Alcyonacea Order of octocorals that do not produce massive calcium carbonate skeletons

Alcyonacea, or soft corals, are an order of corals. In addition to the fleshy soft corals, the order Alcyonacea now contains all species previously known as "gorgonian corals", that produce a more or less hard skeleton, though quite different from "true" corals (Scleractinia). These can be found in suborders Holaxonia, Scleraxonia, and Stolonifera. They are sessile colonial cnidarians that are found throughout the oceans of the world, especially in the deep sea, polar waters, tropics and subtropics. Common names for subsets of this order are sea fans and sea whips; others are similar to the sea pens of related order Pennatulacea. Individual tiny polyps form colonies that are normally erect, flattened, branching, and reminiscent of a fan. Others may be whiplike, bushy, or even encrusting. A colony can be several feet high and across, but only a few inches thick. They may be brightly coloured, often purple, red, or yellow. Photosynthetic gorgonians can be successfully kept in captive aquaria.

Deep-water coral

The habitat of deep-water corals, also known as cold-water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) where water temperatures may be as cold as 4 °C (39 °F). Deep-water corals belong to the Phylum Cnidaria and are most often stony corals, but also include black and thorny corals and soft corals including the Gorgonians. Like tropical corals, they provide habitat to other species, but deep-water corals do not require zooxanthellae to survive.

Diamondback tritonia Species of gastropod

The diamondback tritonia is a species of nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Tritoniidae. It is an opportunistic predator of other marine invertebrates.

Phyllodesmium Genus of gastropods

Phyllodesmium is a genus of predatory sea slugs, aeolid nudibranchs, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Facelinidae.

<i>Phyllodesmium serratum</i> Species of gastropod

Phyllodesmium serratum is a species of sea slug, an aeolid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Facelinidae.

<i>Tritoniopsis elegans</i> Species of gastropod

Tritoniopsis elegans is a species of dendronotid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tritoniidae and is found in the western Indo-Pacific. It was first described by the French naturalist Jean Victoire Audouin in 1826, the type specimen being found in the Red Sea.

Carijoa riisei, the snowflake coral or branched pipe coral, is a species of soft coral in the family Clavulariidae. It was originally thought to have been native to the tropical western Atlantic Ocean and subsequently spread to other areas of the world such as Hawaii and the greater tropical Pacific, where it is regarded as an invasive species. The notion that it is native to the tropical western Atlantic was perpetuated from the fact that the type specimen, described by Duchassaing & Michelotti in 1860, was collected from the US Virgin Islands. It has subsequently been shown through molecular evidence that it is more likely that the species is in fact native to the Indo-Pacific and subsequently spread to the western tropical Atlantic most likely as a hull fouling species prior to its original description.

<i>Clavularia crassa</i> Species of coral

Clavularia crassa is a species of colonial soft coral in the family Clavulariidae. It is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It was first described in 1848 by the French zoologist Henri Milne-Edwards from a specimen collected off the coast of Algeria.

<i>Clavularia viridis</i> Species of coral

Clavularia viridis is a species of colonial soft coral in the family Clavulariidae. It is found in shallow waters in the tropical Indo-Pacific.

<i>Phyllodesmium poindimiei</i> Species of gastropod

Phyllodesmium poindimiei is an Alcyonacea feeding, aeolid nudibranch Gastropod belonging to the family Facelinidae. Cerata are important in this clade in terms of their physical defense and efficient metabolic processes. This species is spread sporadically along tropical coastal regions such as Australia, Hawaii, and the Indo-Pacific living in diverse marine habitats such as coral reefs. Unlike other species in the Opisthobranch Mollusca clade, P. poindimiei’s lush pink cerata are used for defensive purposes other than Nematocyst (dinoflagellate) capture and toxin release. Organismal ties within these thriving, tropical ecosystems can be determinants of environment change, which affects massive coral ecosystems. Continuously changing marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, are directly linked to the evolution of organisms that live and thrive in the tropics such as the soft nudibrach P. poindimiei.

Tochuina nigritigris is a species of dendronotid nudibranch, in the family Tritoniidae, that is 82 mm long.

<i>Cycloseris distorta</i> Species of disc coral

Cycloseris distorta is a species of disc coral in the family Fungiidae. It is a free-living, solitary coral and is native to the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific region where it is found on soft sediment in shallow water.

Isotealia antarctica, the salmon anemone, is a species of sea anemone in the family Actiniidae. It is found in the southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the waters around Antarctica. It is a filter feeder and opportunistic predator.

Tritoniella is a genus of sea slugs, specifically dendronotid nudibranchs. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tritoniidae. A monotypic genus, the only species is Tritoniella belli. The genus and species were both described in 1907 by the British diplomat and malacologist Charles Eliot.

References

  1. 1 2 3 van Ofwegen, Leen (2015). "Clavularia frankliniana Roule, 1902". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Clavularia frankliniana Roule, 1902". Antarctic Field Guide. Biodiversity.aq. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  3. Bryan, P.J.; McClintock, J.B.; Baker, J. (1998). "Population biology and antipredator defenses of the shallow-water Antarctic nudibranch Tritoniella belli". Marine Biology. 132 (2): 259–265. doi:10.1007/s002270050391.