Black coral
Antipathes dichotoma
- Scientific name
- Antipathes dichotoma
- Group
- Cnidarians (corals, anemones, jellyfish)
- Rarity
- Epic
- Where to see it
- Mediterranean, Indo-Pacific & Red Sea
- Conservation status (IUCN)
- Not evaluated
Did you know?
Despite its name, black coral gets its dark color not from its living tissue, which is actually colorful, but from its horn-like internal skeleton, visible only once a colony dies and is cleaned. It grows very slowly in deep water, sometimes forming colonies centuries old.
What defines this group — Cnidarians (corals, anemones, jellyfish)
Corals, anemones and jellyfish: the same simple animal, anchored to the bottom or drifting in open water.
- All armed with cnidocytes, harpoon cells that fire on contact.
- A body arranged in rays around a single opening, serving as both mouth and exit.
- Hard corals host algae in their tissue: it is their departure that causes bleaching.