''Aphanipathes'' is a diverse genus of

black coral Antipatharians, also known as black corals or thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals. These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, surrounded by the polyps (part of coral that is alive). Antipat ...

s in the family

Aphanipathidae Aphanipathidae is a family of corals in the order Antipatharia. Species in this family have short, blunt polyp tentacles that tend to be uniform. Spines range from conical to cylindrical and usually have conical tubercles. Unlike Antipathidae ...

, typified by large polypar spines.The Global Biodiversity Information Facility: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, 2013-07-01. Accessed via https://www.gbif.org/species/2258118 on 2015-03-27 However, there are some disagreement in the correct taxonomic classification of this genus. The

Global Biodiversity Information Facility The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...

(

GBIF The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...

) classifies ''Aphanipathes'' as being a genus of the family Aphanipathidae while the

Integrated Taxonomic Information System The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagenc ...

(

ITIS The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagen ...

) classifies it as a genus of the family

Antipathidae Antipathidae is a family of corals in the order Antipatharia, commonly known as black corals. Taxonomy This family contains the following genera according to the World Register of Marine Species The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) ...

. Most commonly found in

subtropic The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...

and

tropic The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

regions, this genus of coral lives in colonies on the

continental slope A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margin ...

of the

ocean floor The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

or on

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

. The colonies exhibit different physical appearances; they can be bushy, fan-shaped or branched like feathers. Most of the ''Aphanipathes'' species are found in tropical regions where they thrive and live successfully. They are never found in

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

or Antarctic regions and are very scarce in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

areas.

Appearance and morphology

Species can be subdivided into three groups: species with nearly uniform polypar spines, species with slightly irregular polypar spines and normal hypostomal spines and species with slightly irregular polypar spines and reduced hypostomal spines. Comparing four members of the genus, as described by Opresko, ''Aphanipathes sarothamnoides'', ''Aphanipathes salix'', ''Aphanipathes verticillata'', and ''Aphanipathes pedata'' all exhibit bushy, irregular branching corallum with mostly straight, elongated, upward branches. Members of this genus tend to have uniserially arranged branches and branchlets, except for ''A. salix.'' ''A. columbiana'' colonies take a fan-shape that exhibits 9th order and greater branching with colonies growing in height usually less than 12 cm, but as high as 25 cm. Branchlets are ≤0.15mm in diameter, have smooth, needle-like spines usually 25mm tall or shorter and spaced 0.18-0.31 mm apart; polyps are spaced 0.27-0.36mm apart and are 0.55-0.65mm in transverse diameter. Polyps living on branchlets grow on one side, in rows of 9-10 per cm. ''A. columbiana'' colonies resemble those of ''Antipathes expansa'', but expansa has spines which are more uniform in size. Compared to two common fan-shaped coral species also in the western

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

: ''Antipathes atlantica'' and ''Antipathes gracilis'', ''Aphanipathes colombiana'' has long, smooth spines, not small (0.1mm) triangular ones. ''Aphanipathes thyoides'', a Caribbean species has similar spines and a similar branching shape, but unlike ''A. columbiana'', its hypostomal spines are smaller or not present. ''Aphanipathes verticillata'' is a morphologically plastic species with large colonies branched to the 12th or greater order, with compressed conical spines covered in small conical tubercles, longitudinally arranged in rows. Polypar spines can be as long as 0.3 mm, and abpolypar spines 0.09-0.15 mm. Spines in rows are spaced 0.28-0.36 mm apart usually, but not more than 0.5mm. ''A. verticillata''

polyps A polyp in zoology is one of two forms found in the phylum Cnidaria, the other being the medusa. Polyps are roughly cylindrical in shape and elongated at the axis of the vase-shaped body. In solitary polyps, the aboral (opposite to oral) end i ...

are typically 1.2-1.5 mm in transverse diameter and are spaced 0.3-0.4 mm apart in single rows on branchlets. Colonies collected in Hawaii range in height from 0.25-1.5m tall. ''Aphanipathes sarothamnoides'' has 5-10 cm long branchlets, spaced 1.5-2.5cm apart with 0.2mm long spines, with tubercles covering the top third or half of spines at an average density of 2.3/1000μm². ''A. verticillata mauiensis'' and ''A. verticillata verticillata'' (found in Japan) are different only in tubercle density. The Hawaiian subspecies exhibits tubercle density of 2.4/1000μm² and the

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

subspecies exhibits tubercle density of 2.9/1000μm². ''Aphanipathes salix'' has 2-3 cm long branchlets, spaced 0.3-2 cm apart, with 0.22 mm tall polypar and 0.13 mm abpolypar spines. ''A. salix'' has few spine tubercles, mostly near the apex with an average density of 2.2/1000μm².

Distribution

''A. columbiana'' has been found off the coast of Colombia, with colonies off Santa Marta and Isla del Tesoro in the rocky littoral zone and

in the western Atlantic. Aphanipathes can be found in the southwestern Atlantic, especially off the coast of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

(20°10’S). ''A. pedata'' and ''A. salix'' have been found in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, ''A. verticillata'' in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

and ''A. pedata'' off the Atlantic coast of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. ''A. sarothamnoides'' can be found in the south

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

and off the coast of

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the ...

in the northwest Pacific. ''A. verticillata'' is a species of ''Aphanipathes'' originally identified in the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...

and Okinawa Island, Japan, but a subspecies has also been identified in the Au’au Channel between Maui and Lanai, Hawaii.

Relationship to genus ''Phanopathes''

DNA sequencing on ''Aphanipathes pedata'' and ''Aphanipathes sarothamnoides'' show a close relationship ''Phanopathes rigida'', which is in the same family Aphanipathidae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3993146 Aphanipathidae Hexacorallia genera Cnidarians of the Indian Ocean Cnidarians of the Pacific Ocean Marine fauna of Asia Marine fauna of Oceania Marine fauna of Southeast Asia