Alcyonacea
Sign in to saveAlso known as soft corals
Alcyonacea (synonyms: Alcyonaria, Alcyonarida), in English soft corals or alcyonacians, is a former order (or suborder) of Octocorallia. Since a 2022 revision of Octocorallia, the content of Alcyonacea has been included in the order Malacalcyonacea and, to a lesser extent, in the order Scleralcyonacea, these two new orders now making up the order Octocorallia.
Species
alcyonaceans
Order
- PhylumCnidaria
- ClassOctocorallia
- OrderAlcyonacea
軟珊瑚（学名：Alcyonacea），非造礁珊瑚，不会产生碳酸钙骨架。共肉組織中含有鈣質骨針，可支撐珊瑚體。軟珊瑚一般生長在水流較急的海域，亦可在光照較弱的水深生長。大多有毒。 与石珊瑚不同，大多数软珊瑚在营养丰富光线较少的水域蓬勃生长。几乎所有品种利用共生光合作用作为一个主要的能源来源。但它们也能从水体中摄食自由漂浮的食物，如浮游动物等。它们是珊瑚礁生态系统的组成部分，为鱼、螺、藻类和其他多种海洋物种的提供栖息地。
via
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 583
- With media
- 29
- Collections
- CAS
- Recorded in
- United States, Philippines, El Salvador, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Antigua And Barbuda
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Definition of the order
- Introduction
- Anatomy
- Features
- Ecology
- Suborders and families
- References
- External links
Alcyonacea (synonyms: Alcyonaria, Alcyonarida), in English soft corals or alcyonacians, is a former order (or suborder) of Octocorallia. Since a 2022 revision of Octocorallia, the content of Alcyonacea has been included in the order Malacalcyonacea and, to a lesser extent, in the order Scleralcyonacea, these two new orders now making up the order Octocorallia.
== Definition of the order == There are three basic ways of delimiting the order Alcyonacea: It some systems it corresponds to what is called suborder Alcyoniina in other systems (see the system stated below in this article for Alcyoniina). In other systems, it includes not only the Alcyoniina, but also the taxa Stolonifera, Telestacea (included in Stolonifera by some authors) and Protoalcyonaria, which are classified as separate orders by other authors. In the broadest sense, it includes not only the Alcyoniina, Stolonifera, Telestacea and Protoalcyonaria, but also the taxa (suborders) Scleraxonia, Holaxonia and Calcaxonia (former name: "restricted Holaxonia"), which, in other systems (and in all systems before 1981), were together classified as the separate order Gorgonacea (synonyms: Gorgonarida, Gorgonaria), in English called gorgonians or sea fans (and sea whips). This definition of Alcyonacea is also used in the following text of this article.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Alcyonacea” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.