Preview
Family
Plexauridae
Common Name(s)
Spiny sea fan
Colony Form
Broad, fan-shaped or candelabrum-like colony, usually no more than 30 cm tall.
Axis
Distinctly flattened where branches fork, like the web of skin between the base of your thumb and hand.
Branches
End branches short, slightly tapered and flattened; to 6 mm across but only 4.5 mm thick.
Apertures
Crowded, with sharply pointed lower lip directed upward toward branch tip.
Mucus
None
Color
Pale yellowish-brown to light brown; dries white or cream.
Sclerites
Outer layer and calices: spindles either with simple thorns on outer surface and tubercles on inner surface, or only tubercles; no branching spines; 1.0-2.5 mm long. Inner layer: blunt spindles and rods near branch tips, 0.15-0.45 mm long; coarse globular, ovate or elongate sclerites lower in colony, 0.15-0.35 mm.
Habitat
Just subtidal to 16 m, on outer reef platform and patch reefs.
Distribution
South Florida, Bahamas, and Caribbean Sea
Similar Species
Date Taken
4-11-2016
Notes
Very similar outwardly to Muricea atlantica, which has different sclerites and no flattening of the axis or branches. Muricea laxa andM. elongata have more bushy growth forms.