? Corals Brain Coral, Diploria labyrinthiformis Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Cnidaria Class: Anthozoa Ehrenberg, 1831 Orders Subclass Alcyonaria(Octocorallia) Alcyonacea- Soft corals Gorgonacea- sea fan, sea feather Helioporacea Pennatulacea- sea pen, sea pansy Stolonifera Telestacea Subclass Ceriantipatharia Antipatharia- black coral, thorny coral Ceriantharia- tube-dwelling anemone Subclass Hexacorallia Actiniaria- Sea anemone Scleractinia- stony coral Subclass Zoantharia Corallimorpharia Ptychodactiaria Rugosa† Zoanthidea- zoanthid
Corals (class Anthozoa), which include sea anemones (order Actiniaria), are gastrovascular marine cnidarians (phylum Cnidaria) existing as small sea anemone-like polyps, typically forming colonies of many individuals. The group includes the important reef builders known as hermatypic corals, found in tropical oceans, and belonging to the subclass Zoantharia of order Scleractinia (formerly Madreporaria). The latter are also known as stony corals in as much as the living tissue thinly covers a skeleton composed of calcium carbonate. A coral "head" is formed of many individual polyps, each polyp only a few millimetres in diameter. The colony of polyps functions essentially as a single organism by sharing nutrients via a well developed gastrovascular network, and the polyps are clones, each having the same genetic structure. Each polyp generation grows on the skeletal remains of previous generations, forming a structure that has a shape characteristic of the species, but subject to environmental influences.
