Muricea muricata

Super Group: 
Eukaryota
Phylum: 
Cnidaria
Class: 
Anthozoa
Order: 
Alcyonacea
Family: 
Plexauridae
Genus: 
Muricea
Species: 
muricata
Authority: 
(Pallas, 1766)

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.

Observation site(s)

SYMBIONTS

Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
Association with... Region origin Name of site In reference...
Symbiodinium- clade B Quintana Roo Cancun
VAN OPPEN MJH, MIEOG JC, SANCHEZ CA, FABRICIUS KE (2005) 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
Symbiodinium pulchrorum Quintana Roo