Common sea fan
Gorgonia ventalina
- Scientific name
- Gorgonia ventalina
- Group
- Cnidarians (corals, anemones, jellyfish)
- Rarity
- Common
- Where to see it
- Caribbean & Tropical Atlantic
- Conservation status (IUCN)
- Not evaluated
Did you know?
Its flexible, fan-shaped colony always grows perpendicular to the current, letting its polyps filter the greatest possible amount of drifting plankton.
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.