''Heliopora'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

cnidaria Cnidaria () is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic animals found both in freshwater and marine environments, predominantly the latter. Their distinguishing feature is cnidocytes, specialized cells that th ...

n in the monotypic

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Helioporidae. It is a reef building hard coral but belongs to the subclass

Octocorallia Octocorallia (also known as Alcyonaria) is a class of Anthozoa comprising around 3,000 species of water-based organisms formed of colonial polyps with 8-fold symmetry. It includes the blue coral, soft corals, sea pens, and gorgonians (sea fan ...

and is therefore most closely related to soft corals, sea pens, fan corals and sea whips and not to the main reef-building Scleractinian corals, which belong to subclass

Hexacorallia Hexacorallia is a Class (biology), class of Anthozoa comprising approximately 4,300 species of aquatic organisms formed of polyp (zoology), polyps, generally with 6-fold symmetry. It includes all of the stony corals, most of which are Colony (b ...

. Currently only three species are known, one of which is known only from fossils: * ''

Heliopora coerulea Blue coral (''Heliopora coerulea'') is a species of colonial coral. It is the only octocoral known to produce a massive skeleton. This skeleton is formed of aragonite, similar to that of scleractinia. Individual polyps live in tubes within the sk ...

'' (Pallas, 1766) - blue coral * '' Heliopora fijiensis''† Hoffmeister, 1945 *''Heliopora hiberniana'' Richards, Yasuda, Kikuchi, Foster, Mitsuyuki, Stat, Suyama & Wilson, 2018

References

Octocorallia genera Helioporidae {{Octocorallia-stub