Scleralcyonacea is an order of the class Octocorallia.
It combines the traditional taxa Calcaxonia (except the genus Isis), Pennatulacea and Helioporacea, as well as a part of Scleraxonia and a part of Stolonifera, and the genera Ideogorgia and Parasphaerasclera. See below for a more detailed description.
History
A
clade combining (primarily) the
Calcaxonia, the
Pennatulacea and the
Helioporacea was identified (but not named) as early as in a 2006 study and in several later studies; it was usually called informally the
Calcaxonia-Pennatulacea clade or the
Pennatulacea-Calcaxonia clade.
[McFadden, C. S., France, S. C., Sánchez, J. A., & Alderslade, P. (2006). A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Octocorallia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) based on mitochondrial protein-coding sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 41(3), 513–527.][
]
[1] (2021).
9781482235821, CRC Press.
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In 2019, G. C. Williams proposed (only optionally) calling the Calcaxonia-Pennatulacea clade Calcaxonia (sensu lato),[Williams, Gary. (2019). A new genus and species of enigmatic gorgonian coral from the Ryukyu Archipelago, northwestern Pacific, with a discussion of calcaxonian systematics (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Octocorallia). Zootaxa. 4701. 417-433. 10.11646/zootaxa.4701.5.2.] but other authors did not adopt this naming proposal.
The phylogenetic study McFadden et al. 2022 assigned the name Scleralcyonacea and the rank of an order to the Calcaxonia-Pennatulacea clade. The study found Octocorallia to be divided into two monophyletic lineages (both identified already by some earlier studies
While the genus
Isis was historically placed within Calcaxonia as a relative of
Keratoisididae and
Mopseidae, it was found to be unrelated, with the difference in internode growth patterns being identified as phylogenetically informative.
Name
Scleralcyonacea was named after
Greek language σκληρός]] (
, ) and former coral order
Alcyonacea, as most of its members contain either an
coral skeleton made of calcium carbonate or
fused with calcitic material.
Taxonomy
Scleralcyonacea contains the monophyletic
sea pens (superfamily Pennatuloidea) as well as 21 other families and two
incertae sedis genera. The order includes the following:
-
family Aulopsammiidae Reuss, 1854 = (included in Helioporidae by McFadden et al. 2022) He
-
family Briareidae Gray, 1859 Sc
-
family Chelidonisididae Heestand Saucier, France & Watling, 2021 Ca
-
family Chrysogorgiidae Verrill, 1883 Ca
-
family Coralliidae Lamouroux, 1812 Sc
-
family Cornulariidae Dana, 1846 St
-
family Dendrobrachiidae Brook, 1889 Ca/Ho
-
family Ellisellidae Gray, 1859 Ca
-
family Erythropodiidae Kükenthal, 1916 Sc
-
genus Helicogorgia Bayer, 1981 Ca
-
family Helioporidae Moseley, 1876 He
-
family Ideogorgiidae McFadden, van Ofwegen & Quattrini, 2024 Ho
-
family Ifalukellidae Bayer, 1955 Ca
-
family Isidoidae Heestand Saucier, France & Watling, 2021 Ca
-
family Keratoisididae Gray, 1870 Ca
-
family Mopseidae Gray, 1870 Ca
-
family Parasphaerascleridae McFadden & van Ofwegen, 2013 Al
-
family Parisididae Aurivillius, 1931 Sc
-
superfamily Pennatuloidea Ehrenberg, 1834 Pe
-
family Pleurogorgiidae Cairns, Cordeiro & Alderslade in Cairns et al., 2021 Ca
-
family Primnoidae Milne Edwards, 1857 Ca
-
family Sarcodictyonidae McFadden, van Ofwegen & Quattrini, 2024 St
-
family Spongiodermidae Wright & Studer, 1889 Sc
-
genus Stephanogorgia Bayer & Muzik, 1976 Ca
Legend (traditional assignment of the taxa): Ca = Calcaxonia, Pe = Pennatulacea, He = Helioporacea, St = Stolonifera, Sc = Scleraxonia, Ho = Holaxonia (sensu stricto), Al = Alcyoniina.
Works cited
Bibliography
-
Taxonomic Study of Suborder Calcaxonia (Alcyonacea: Octocorallia: Anthozoa) from King Sejong Station, Antarctic. Song Jun-Im, Hwang Sung-Jin, Moon Haewon and An In-Young, Animal Systematics, 30 Apr 2012, Evolution and Diversity Volume 28, Issue2, pages 84~96,
External links
