Brachycnemina is a

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

of zoanthids in the order

Zoantharia Zoanthids ( order Zoantharia also called Zoanthidea or Zoanthiniaria) are an order of cnidarians commonly found in coral reefs, the deep sea and many other marine environments around the world. These animals come in a variety of different coloniz ...

. Genetic analysis has been used to suggest Brachycnemina is a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group diverging within the

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

Macrocnemina.

Characteristics

Brachycnemia species habitate most environments, ranging from shallow tropical

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

s to

cold seep A cold seep (sometimes called a cold vent) is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. ''Cold'' does not mean that the temperature of the see ...

s in the deep sea. It forms large colonies on

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats with var ...

and shallow reef crests. Due to the members of this suborder being loosely collected, there are no standard characteristics uniting them besides slight morphological,

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

differences.

Subdivisions

This suborder counts with 3 taxonomic families, namely Neozoanthidae, which is

monogeneric In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

; Sphenopidae, which includes sand-encrusted and colonial specimens like the commonly found ''

Palythoa ''Palythoa'' is a genus of anthozoans in the order Zoantharia.Reimer, J. (2018). Palythoa Lamouroux, 1816. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=205785 on 2018-08-27 Descrip ...

'' and ''

Sphenopus ''Sphenopus'' (common name coastal grass), is a genus of Asian and Mediterranean plants in the grass family. ; Species * '' Sphenopus divaricatus'' (Gouan) Rchb. - Mediterranean and adjacent regions from Canary Islands and Portugal to Tajikistan ...

'', itself found in a few discrete areas; and

Zoanthidae Zoanthidae is a family of cnidarians. Genera include: * '' Acrozoanthus'' Saville-Kent, 1893 * '' Isaurus'' Gray, 1828 * ''Zoanthus ''Zoanthus'' is a genus of anthozoans in the family Zoanthidae. It is the type genus for its family and orde ...

, whose belonging species do not show sand encrustation. A total of 6 known genera and over 163 species are comprised within the Brachycnemina. ''Palythoa'' and ''Zoanthus'' are two of the most common coral genera and are intensively studied for their bioactive compounds.

References

External links

*
WORMS entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brachycnemina Zoantharia Cnidarian suborders

Characteristics

Subdivisions

References

Further reading

External links