Myriapora truncata (Pallas , 1766)

Classification :

Description :
Myriapora truncata (Pallas, 1766) is an erect and tree-like bryozoan species, ressembling a red coral (Corallium rubrum), and is yellow-red to bright orange. Its branches are round, have flat tips and lack the septa of true coral, its extremities are truncated and the ramification is dichotomized (one branch give two branches which have the same thickness as the original branch). The zooidal lophophore is pale orange.

This species lives on hard substrates, in crevices and caves, usually in shadow, shaded places. It is common in coralligenous in all its distribution area (Mediterranean Sea and in some places of the East-Atlantic Ocean). It’s a species which was impacted by the warming of 1999, 2003 and 2006 in North-Western Mediterranean and it was studied to investigate the effects of global warming and ocean acidification (Lombardi et al., 2011; Rodolpho-Metalpa et al., 2010). Despite its reproduction pattern (a lecitotrophic and brooded larvae with low dispersal potential), it is widespread in all the Mediterranean areas with low luminosity.

References :
REGUIEG Aedwina, HARMELIN Jean-Georges, SITTLER Alain-Pierre, in : DORIS, 15/6/2013 : Myriapora truncata (Pallas, 1766), http://doris.ffessm.fr/fiche2.asp?fiche_numero=327

Myripora truncata / © S. Ruitton