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Pennatulacea
| Description | Sea pens are colonial marine cnidarians belonging to the order Pennatulacea. There are 14 families within the order; 35 extant genera, and it is estimated that of 450 described species, around 200 are valid. Sea pens have a cosmopolitan distribution, being found in tropical and temperate waters worldwide, as well as from the intertidal to depths of more than 6100m. Sea pens are grouped with the octocorals ("soft corals"), together with sea whips or gorgonians. From Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennatulacea, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source Data |
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| Rank | order | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomy (GBIF,PBDB) | Life : Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Pennatulacea | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomic Status (GBIF) | accepted | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification (PBDB,GBIF) |
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| Common Name | sea pen | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific Name | Pennatulacea | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Opinions (PBDB) |
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| Status (PBDB) | extant | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxon Size (PBDB) | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Extant Size (PBDB) | 3 (33%) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| First Recorded Appearance | 0.13 - 0.01 Ma Pleistocene | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Motility | stationary, attached (based on Anthozoa) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Vision | blind (based on Anthozoa) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Diet | microcarnivore (based on Anthozoa) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary Reference (PBDB) | J. J. Sepkoski, Jr. 2002. A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 363:1-560 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Common Name(s) | Sea Pens, Sjöpennor, Zeepennen, ウミエラ, Sea Pen, Sea Panzies | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennatulacea |
External Images
Fossil Distribution
Subtaxa
| Name | Status | Common Name(s) | Fossil Occurrences | Oldest | Youngest |
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| Anthoptilidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Chunellidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Echinoptilidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Funiculinidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Halipteridae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Kophobelemnidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Kophobelemnoidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Kophobelemnonidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Pennatulidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Pennautlidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Protoptilidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Pteroeididae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Pteroididae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Renillidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Scleroptilidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Stachyptilidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Umbellulidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Veretillidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Virgulariidae family | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
| Waiparaconidae ✝ family | accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | 1 | 47.8 Ma Eocene | 47.8 Ma Eocene | |
| Glyptosceptron ✝ genus | doubtful (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | ||||
| Pachysceptron ✝ genus | doubtful (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | ||||
| Palaeosceptron ✝ genus | doubtful (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | ||||
| Pavonaria ✝ genus | listed (PBDB) | ||||
| Prographularia ✝ genus | doubtful (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | ||||
| Pteroeides genus | accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | 0 Ma Extant | |||
| Thaumoptilon ✝ genus | listed (PBDB) | ||||
| Virgularia genus | accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | 1 | 0.13 Ma Pleistocene | 0 Ma Extant | |
Synonymy List
| Year | Name and Author |
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| 2002 | Pennatulacea Sepkoski, Jr. |
References
Data courtesy of: PBDB: The Paleobiology Database, Creative Commons CC-BY licenced. , GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, various licences, iDigBio, various licences, and EOL: The Encyclopedia of Life (Open Data Public Domain). Because fossils are made of minerals too!
