Octocorallia

Also known as Alcyonaria

Octocorallia, along with Hexacorallia, is one of the two extant classes of Anthozoa. It comprises over 3,000 species of marine and brackish animals consisting of colonial polyps with eight-fold symmetry, commonly referred to informally as "soft corals". It was previously known by the now-unaccepted scientific names Alcyonacea and Gorgonacea, both deprecated , and by the also deprecated name of Alcyonaria, in earlier times.