''Alcyonium acaule'' or Mediterranean sea-finger is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

soft coral Alcyonacea is the old scientific order name for the informal group known as "soft corals". It is now an unaccepted name for class Octocorallia. It became deprecated . The following text should be considered a historical, outdated way of treatin ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Alcyoniidae Alcyoniidae is a family of leathery or soft corals in the phylum Cnidaria.Leathery cor ...

. It is found at moderate depths on shaded rocks in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and adjoining parts of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

Description

Mediterranean sea-finger is a colonial coral forming clumps of yellow, pink, brown-red to brown orange fleshy masses of finger-like lobes. The colony can reach a height of 20 cm maximum. The body's surface is entirely covered by whitish polyps from the foot to the top of the lobes. As for all the

, it uses its

hydrostatic skeleton A hydrostatic skeleton or hydroskeleton is a type of skeleton supported by hydrostatic fluid pressure or liquid, common among soft-bodied organism, soft-bodied invertebrate animals colloquially referred to as "worms". While more advanced organisms ...

capacity to maintain and manage its body posture.

Distribution and habitat

This

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

however its area of distribution overflows slightly and extends along the Portuguese and Spanish Atlantic coasts. It is usually found between 12 and 135 m deep.Steven Weinberg, ''Découvrir la Méditerranée'', Nathan nature, 2007, 352 p. () ''Alcyonium acaule'' is a sciophilous animal that likes to avoid places exposed to unfiltered light and prefers shaded places such as overhangs or caves.

Ecology

In the Mediterranean Sea, ''Alcyonium acaule'' frequently forms dense agglomerations, often in association with the yellow cluster anemone (''

Parazoanthus axinellae ''Parazoanthus axinellae'', commonly known as the yellow cluster anemone, is a zoanthid coral found on the southern Atlantic coasts of Europe and in the Mediterranean Sea. Zoanthids differ from true sea anemones, in having a different internal a ...

''). Other organisms in these biodiverse habitats include suspension feeders such as sponges, cnidarians,

bryozoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary Colony (biology), colonies. Typically about long, they have a spe ...

ns and

tunicate Tunicates are marine invertebrates belonging to the subphylum Tunicata ( ). This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...

s, and the rock is encrusted with coralline algae. There is space competition among these organisms and during a two-year research study, a number of small colonies of ''Alcyonium acaule'' disappeared, and very little growth of colonies occurred. Many colonies showed less feeding activity during the summer, with up to ninety percent becoming dormant.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2108270 Alcyoniidae Animals described in 1878