Ellisella paraplexauroides | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Class: | Octocorallia |
Order: | Alcyonacea |
Family: | Ellisellidae |
Genus: | Ellisella |
Species: | E. paraplexauroides
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Binomial name | |
Ellisella paraplexauroides Stiasny, 1936
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Ellisella paraplexauroides is a vulnerable gorgonian considered among the largest colonial invertebrates of the Mediterranean Sea. [2]
It has an unusual restricted and uneven distribution, with isolated and extremely sparse colonies in a few sites in the Alboran Sea, the coasts of Algeria and Tunisia, and in the Strait of Sicily, [2] with an exceptionally dense and rich population around the Natura 2000 site on Chafarinas Islands, where its colonies make a unique seascape. [2]