Black coral  (Antipathes dichotoma)

Description

Antipathes, meaning "against suffering", are corals that have been harvested for centuries to create charms and medicines, believed to have the power to ward off evil and injury (2). Antipathes species belong to the order Antipatharia, the black corals, which are named for their black or brownish flexible skeleton (2) (3). They possess distinctive tiny spines on the surface of the skeleton, and thus are sometimes also referred to as “little thorn corals” (2). Antipathes corals exhibit very diverse morphology; colonies can be sparsely or densely branched or bushy, with branches of varying length, arranged irregularly or with bilateral symmetry (4). Species also differ in their colour; the living tissue may be black, red, orange, brown, green, yellow, or white (2). Each polyp possess six, non-retractable tentacles that are armed with stinging cells (2).

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