Octocorallia

Octocorallia, along with Hexacorallia, is one of the two extant classes of Anthozoa. It comprises over 3,000 species of marine and brackish animals consisting of colonial polyps with eight-fold symmetry, commonly referred to informally as "soft corals". It was previously known by the now-unaccepted scientific names Alcyonacea and Gorgonacea, both deprecated c. 2022, and by the also deprecated name of Alcyonaria, in earlier times.

Octocorallia

Nhobgood · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AnthozoaPBDB
Diet
suspension feeder, carnivorePBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa

Time the record covers

At least 505 million years on record.

The record covers at least 505.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 509.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Cambrian — about 3 of 414 occurrencesOrdovician — about 4 of 414 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 414 occurrencesDevonian — about 11 of 414 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 35 of 414 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 414 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 414 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 414 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 414 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 414 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 414 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 414 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 52 of 414 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 87 of 414 occurrencesPaleocene — about 61 of 414 occurrencesEocene — about 54 of 414 occurrencesOligocene — about 21 of 414 occurrencesMiocene — about 39 of 414 occurrencesPliocene — about 11 of 414 occurrencesPleistocene — about 19 of 414 occurrences520–503 Mya — about 2 occurrences503–485 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences485–468 Mya — about 4 occurrences433–416 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences416–399 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences399–381 Mya — about 1 occurrence381–364 Mya — about 3 occurrences364–347 Mya — about 10 occurrences347–329 Mya — about 25 occurrences329–312 Mya — about 5 occurrences208–191 Mya — about 1 occurrence173–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–139 Mya — about 2 occurrences139–121 Mya — about 16 occurrences121–104 Mya — about 34 occurrences104–87 Mya — about 38 occurrences87–69 Mya — about 35 occurrences69–52 Mya — about 84 occurrences52–35 Mya — about 43 occurrences35–17 Mya — about 44 occurrences17–0 Mya — about 65 occurrences505.3 Mya11.7 ka520 Mya0 Mya

414 occurrences of Octocorallia on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

414 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

127 formations

Maastricht — 50.85°N, 5.68°ELondon Clay — 51.43°N, 2.00°WLondon Clay — 50.83°N, 0.78°WLondon Clay — 51.73°N, 0.48°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°EStreiteck — 47.50°N, 11.88°ESalcedo — 45.77°N, 11.60°EUhrov — 49.12°N, 18.45°ESimsima — 25.72°N, 55.82°ESimsima — 25.02°N, 55.78°EKorycany — 50.27°N, 14.48°EKorycany — 49.97°N, 15.15°EKorycany — 50.20°N, 14.43°EFeltrim — 53.43°N, 6.20°WFeltrim — 53.62°N, 6.92°WChaaldzhin — 38.67°N, 56.58°EMoshi Sandstone — 39.92°N, 141.93°EMoshi Sandstone — 39.82°N, 141.97°EMoshi Sandstone — 39.68°N, 141.98°EVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WVincentown — 39.94°N, 74.75°WRiukiu Limestone — 28.33°N, 130.00°ERiukiu Limestone — 24.75°N, 125.33°ERiukiu Limestone — 24.45°N, 123.00°EBarton Beds — 50.85°N, 1.78°WBarton Beds — 50.74°N, 1.69°WDölzschen — 51.03°N, 13.70°EDölzschen — 50.95°N, 13.87°EGlen Rose Limestone — 30.00°N, 98.20°WGlen Rose Limestone — 29.92°N, 98.28°WGlen Rose Limestone — 29.88°N, 98.65°WSaidabad Coral Limestone — 29.52°N, 55.88°ESaidabad Coral Limestone — 29.42°N, 55.83°ESaidabad Coral Limestone — 29.22°N, 55.83°EHiraiga Sandstone — 39.92°N, 141.93°EHiraiga Sandstone — 39.80°N, 141.97°EHiraiga Sandstone — 39.68°N, 141.98°EWocklumeria Limestone — 50.55°N, 16.55°EVarciorog — 46.95°N, 22.28°EVarciorog — 46.92°N, 22.30°EBranderfleck — 47.63°N, 11.67°EBateque — 26.75°N, 113.00°WBateque — 26.50°N, 112.73°WGatuncillo — 9.25°N, 79.63°WGatuncillo — 9.18°N, 79.55°WStone City — 30.63°N, 96.54°WBila hora — 50.02°N, 15.08°EBila hora — 50.20°N, 14.32°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Octocorallia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 103 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 205 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Octocorallia and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Octocorallia and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

3,615 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 217 sites for Octocorallia, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

199 references

Each of the 414 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 187 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Octocorallia

Credit
Nhobgood
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Octocorallia was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnthozoa through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Haeckel 1866