Unknown Soft Coral 1

Unknown Soft Coral 1

Pillow basalts, interspersed with sediment ponds, mark old lava flows on the flanks of Axial Seamount. The rocks and sediment are host to occasional deep sea corals.

Only observed once, this fan-like soft coral was clinging to pillow basalts near to the base of Axial Seamount. Corals found in the deep sea are colonial, with tiny individuals known as polyps living among the structure. These polyps are similar in morphology to anemones, but they live within a structure called a corallite. Deep sea corals are suspension feeders, and do not have the symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) living among their tentacles, since there is no light for the algae to photosynthesize.