Description

Description. Colony (Figure 4, 6) fragments robust, tree-like, with thick, conspicuous branches. Specimen of Figure 4 approximately 18 cm tall, that of Figure 6 roughly 36 cm long (when gently stretched out). Coenenchyme is thick and tough (like cutting through raw carrot). Branches moderately smooth in appearance, although lumpy in many spots, with small calyces evident; appear somewhat moderately spaced, scattered irregularly, on all sides of branches; distal or lateral branch tips each end with round, swollen knob. Color of branch coenenchyme (Figure 4) bright reddish orange; specimen shown in Figure 6 creamy beige with orange polyp apertures (this could be normal color or could have bleached out due to earlier storage solutions); in both specimens, polyps of same orange hue, with tentacles white (more visible in specimen of Figure 4). Cross section samples of both colonies revealed obvious boundary canals, and both colonies have very few, but rather large penetration canals in the medulla. No blunt, stubby, ornate polyp tentacular sclerites (rods) were ever found in any of numerous tissue samples examined; outer surface sclerites are radiate (Figures 5 C, 7 C), most closely matching a 7 - radiate configuration, with ornamentation often jagged and extensive; color of these sclerites a pale pinkish orange; medullary sclerites (Figures 5 A, 7 A) are spindles, with moderate ornamentation, not as bare as seen in most other species of the genus; these spindles are more or less white, but may often have a very pale yellow color.

Common Names

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Cnidaria

Class: Anthozoa

Order: Scleralcyonacea

Family: Coralliidae

Genus: Sibogagorgia

Species: Sibogagorgia californica Horvath, 2019