Sarcophyton elegans
Elephant Ear Coral
©David: Sarcophyton elegans Barry the Bommie
©David: Sarcophyton elegans, Barrythe Bommie
©David: Sarcophyton elegans, after shedding its skin, Barry the Bommie
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Cnidaria
Class
Anthozoa
Order
Alcyonacea
Family
Alcyoniidae
Genus
Sarcophyton
Species
Sarcophyton elegans
Distinguishing features
Distinguishing features still need to be specified.
Size
- Size data has not been obtained.
Synonyms
Interesting facts
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Imagine a jellyfish, stick its head on the bottom and let the ‘bell’ (the jellyfish’s body) grow really big. Then let hundreds of mini-jellyfish come out of its skin like a field of flowers and that is what soft coral is.
Turn the jelly-like body into rock and let it grow in different shapes and that is what hard coral is.
Put them together and you have the reef; photosynthetic, jellyfish-covered, rock-building skin.
Shrink yourself down to the size of a copepod and you can enter a real-life scene from Avatar. Guardian: Madison Ogilvie
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
