Muricea muricata
Diagnosis
Common Name(s):Spiny sea fan
Colony Form:Broad, fan-shaped or candelabrum-like colony, usually no more than 30 cm tall.
Axis:Distinctly flattened where branches fork, like the web of skin between the base of your thumb and hand.
Branches:End branches short, slightly tapered and flattened; to 6 mm across but only 4.5 mm thick.
Apertures:Crowded, with sharply pointed lower lip directed upward toward branch tip.
Mucus:None.
Color:Pale yellowish-brown to light brown; dries white or cream.
Sclerites:Outer layer and calices: spindles either with simple thorns on outer surface and tubercles on inner surface, or only tubercles; no branching spines; 1.0-2.5 mm long. Inner layer: blunt spindles and rods near branch tips, 0.15-0.45 mm long; coarse globular, ovate or elongate sclerites lower in colony, 0.15-0.35 mm.
Ecology
Habitat:Just subtidal to 16 m, on outer reef platform and patch reefs.
Reference(s)
Observation site(s)
SYMBIONTS
Association with... | Region origin | Name of site | In reference... |
---|---|---|---|
Symbiodinium- clade B | Quintana Roo | Cancun |
Diversity of algal endosymbionts (zooxanthellae) in octocorals: the roles of geography and host relationships. Molecular Ecology 14:2403 - 2417. doi: 10.1111/mec.2005.14.issue-810.1111/j.1365-294X.2005.02545.x (2005) |
Symbiodinium pulchrorum | Quintana Roo |
Diversity and community structure of symbiotic dinoflagellates from Caribbean coral reefs. Marine Biology 141:387 - 400. doi: 10.1007/s00227-002-0829-2 (2002) |