''Madrepora oculata'', also called zigzag coral, is a

stony coral Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a ...

that is found worldwide outside of the polar regions, growing in deep water at depths of 80–1500 meters. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. It is one of only 12 species of

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

that are found worldwide, including in

Subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands ...

oceans. In some areas, such as in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

and the North-east

Atlantic Ocean 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 ...

, it dominates communities of coral.

Description

The species is quite variable in its tendency to branch, its texture and color and other aspects, even within specimens in the same coral colony. It is bushy, growing in small colonies that form thickets, creating matrices that are fan-shaped and about 30 to 50 cm high. It has thick skeletal parts that grow in a

lamellar A ''lamella'' (plural ''lamellae'') is a small plate or flake, from the Latin, and may also be used to refer to collections of fine sheets of material held adjacent to one another, in a gill-shaped structure, often with fluid in between though s ...

pattern. . As its skeleton is fragile and unable to sustain a large framework, it is usually found among stronger coral, such as ''

Lophelia pertusa ''Lophelia pertusa'', the only species in the genus ''Lophelia'', is a cold-water coral that grows in the deep waters throughout the North Atlantic ocean, as well as parts of the Caribbean Sea and Alboran Sea. Although ''L. pertusa'' reefs are ...

'' and ''Goniocorella dumosa'', that offer protection. In areas where it dominates, it is usually found in rubble and debris rather than in coral reefs. ''Madrepora oculata'' produces large amounts of

mucus Mucus ( ) is a slippery aqueous secretion produced by, and covering, mucous membranes. It is typically produced from cells found in mucous glands, although it may also originate from mixed glands, which contain both serous and mucous cells. It is ...

that is

extracellular This glossary of biology terms is a list of definitions of fundamental terms and concepts used in biology, the study of life and of living organisms. It is intended as introductory material for novices; for more specific and technical definitions ...

or outside the cell membranes. The mucus acts in a protective capacity to shield the coral skeleton from attacks of destructive pests.

Hypertrophy

The first instances of possible cancer in coral were reported in a species of ''Madrepora'' in Hawaiian waters in which

hypertrophied Hypertrophy is the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells. It is distinguished from hyperplasia, in which the cells remain approximately the same size but increase in number.Updated by Linda J. ...

corallite A corallite is the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits and into which it can retract. The cup is composed of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and is secreted by the polyp. Corallit ...

s were noted. Similarly hypertrophied corallites were described in colonies of ''Madrepora oculata'' near northwestern Australia and Japan, as well as in the

Formosa Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...

and other areas, but have never been confirmed. A recent provisional reinterpretation is that these abnormal corallites are a form of internal

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

, an abnormal swelling or growth caused by infection by a

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

, rather than a classical

neoplasm A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar , from=Q3022479 Oculinidae Corals described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus