Antipathes Pallas, 1766

Horowitz, Jeremy, Opresko, Dennis, Molodtsova, Tina N., Beaman, Robin J., Cowman, Peter F. & Bridge, Tom C. L., 2022, Five new species of black coral (Anthozoa; Antipatharia) from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, Australia, Zootaxa 5213 (1), pp. 1-35 : 4

Genus Antipathes Pallas, 1766

Diagnosis (after Opresko 2019). Corallum sparsely to densely branched. Branching bushy, bramble-like, broomlike, or fan-shaped. Terminal branchlets of varying length; arranged irregularly, or bilaterally. Spines triangular or cone-shaped in lateral view; smooth or papillose; apex of spines simple or with one or more lobes or bifurcations.

Polyps less than 1 mm in transverse diameter.

Type Species. Antipathes dichotoma Pallas, 1766

Type Locality. Mediterranean Sea

Remarks. Antipathes dichotoma is the type species of the Antipathidae ; however, molecular studies ( Bo et al. 2018; Brugler et al. 2013), including this study ( Fig. 2 ), have found that the species is more closely related to species in the Aphanipathidae than the Antipathidae . A formal review with integrated morphological and molecular data of all species in each family is required to resolve this taxonomic issue.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Antipatharia based on a 50% complete matrix containing 1,047 loci. Taxa in blue and imaged represent species described in this study.