Scleractinia Bourne, 1900

Baron-Szabo, Rosemarie C., 2008, Dendrophylliina, Caryophylliina, Fungiina, Microsolenina, and Stylinina, Zootaxa 1952, pp. 1-244 : 30

Order Scleractinia Bourne, 1900

Diagnosis. Solitary or colonial Zoantharia with calcareous external skeleton secreted by the ectodermal body layer, consisting essentially of radial partitions or septa, which are intermesenterial in position and formed within upward infoldings of the basal part of the polyp column wall, and attendant supporting structures: basal plate, epitheca, dissepiments, synapticulae, and mural structures; septa developed in ontogeny following pattern of mesenteries, additional septa after first 6 being inserted in all 6 primary mesenterial exocoeles in successive cycles of six, 12, 24, 48, and so on, in dorsoventral order.