''Corynactis viridis'', the jewel anemone,
[ is a brightly coloured ]anthozoa
Anthozoa is a subphylum 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 t ...
n similar in body form to a sea anemone or a 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 mo ...
n coral polyp, but in the order Corallimorpharia
Corallimorpharia is an order of marine cnidarians closely related to stony or reef building corals ( Scleractinia). They occur in both temperate and tropical climates, although they are mostly tropical. Temperate forms tend to be very robust, ...
. It is found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
and was first described by the Irish naturalist George Allman in 1846.[
]
Description
The column of this species is smooth and roughly cylindrical, being slightly wider at the base and oral disc than in the centre. The base can grow to a diameter of about and is often ragged in outline; this is because the animal divides by longitudinal fission
Fission, a splitting of something into two or more parts, may refer to:
* Fission (biology), the division of a single entity into two or more parts and the regeneration of those parts into separate entities resembling the original
* Nuclear fissio ...
,[ and sometimes the two new individuals remain partially united. The individuals are usually found in dense aggregations,][ but each animal is only lightly attached to the substrate and can drift away. The tentacles are short to medium length, with tapering shafts and knobbed tips, and are in two whorls; the outer tentacles are the longer and the inner ones more numerous. The colour of this anemone is very variable; the column, tentacles and knobbed tips may be contrasting hues of white, pink, orange, red and green, while the oral disc is usually translucent, either plain or splashed with white. One common form is emerald green with brown tentacles with crimson tips, often with the oral disc having a crimson marginal ring.]
Distribution and habitat
''Corynactis viridis'' occurs in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Its range includes Scotland, Ireland, the western and southern coasts of England and Wales, southwestern continental Europe and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Its depth range extends from the lower shore to the sublittoral zone
The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth.
From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...
, to depths of about . It is found in dimly lit locations on rock, particularly vertical rock faces, overhangs and caves, and often forms dense patches.[
]
Ecology
In addition to ordinary sexual reproduction, ''Corynactis viridis'' reproduces by means of longitudinal fission;
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2857917
Corallimorphidae
Cnidarians of the Atlantic Ocean
Fauna of the Mediterranean Sea
Animals described in 1846
Taxa named by George Allman (natural historian)