Corallium medea Bayer 1964

• Main Authors: Castro, Clovis B., Thiago, Cristovam M., Medeiros, Marcelo S.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2003
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Cnidaria; Anthozoa; Alcyonacea; Coralliidae; Corallium; Corallium medea; Lophelia pertusa
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6273791; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/C40D87A0FFFD0406BF1FFB873085FC98

Corallium medea Bayer, 1964 (Figs. 1–4) Corallium medea Bayer 1964: 468 –473, figs. 1–3; Messing et al . 1990: 32, fig. 7a. Diagnosis . Branches nearly round in cross section. Coenenchymal surface smooth or with extremely small granulations. Axis without pits beneath autozooids. Autozooids predominantly facing one side of the colony and retracted within hemispherical coenenchymal mounds. Coenenchyme with 6­, 7­, and 8­radiates, and double clubs. Double clubs with small protuberances on their heads. Material examined . MNRJ 4263 (intertwined with a colony of the scleractinian coral Lophelia pertusa — only a small area with tissue), MNRJ 4265 (fragment), MNRJ 4887 (colony with base), Almirante Saldanha Bank (22 22.35” S, 0 37 39.32” W), 380–500 m, collected by REVIZEE project, research vessel Astro Garoupa , 6 November 1997. Description . Arborescent planar colonies (Fig. 1 A). Studied specimens include an almost complete colony (MNRJ 4887) and a fragment (MNRJ 4265), 15.5 and 28.6 cm high, 18.0 and 14.0 cm wide, and 6.1 and 5.3 cm deep, respectively. Branching irregular, up to the fourth order. Terminal branches may anastomose. Colony base (MNRJ 4887) spreads irregularly, as a thin calcareous holdfast, over an area 63 x 39 mm in its maximum dimensions. Branches taper from base to tip — example of thickness of consecutive branch axes (just after branching): near base 20 mm; trunk 17.2 mm; secondary branch 11.7 mm; tertiary branch 8.4 mm; terminal (lateral) twigs 1.8–2.9 mm; distal branch tips 2.0– 3.4 mm. Branches round in cross section. Axis with several narrow longitudinal grooves: surface almost smooth under light microscope, with minute scattered “spines” on the surface; surface finely tuberculated/spinous under SEM (Fig. 2). Coenenchymal surface smooth or with extremely small granulations. Polyps scattered on one side of the colony (front), up to seven per centimetre of branch, absent on proximal regions of trunk and main branches, retracted within low, hemispherical, coenenchymal mounds, up to 1.2 mm high ...