BO M.

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Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) investigations of the Mediterranean deep continental shelf and bathyal zone have provided, in the last decade, a large amount of data concerning an enigmatic group of anthozoans: the black corals. Taxonomic investigations as well as ecological and biological studies contributed to unveil the diversity, population...

Antipatharians, also known as black corals, represent a small group of anthozoan hexacorallians found in all oceans of the world. They are generally considered a deep-water taxon; however, some of the most diverse communities are known from tropical shallow waters. With a few poorly detailed exceptions, shallow-water black corals from the...

The term cold-water coral sensu lato groups taxa with a more or less pronounced frame-building ability (e.g. Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata) with forest-forming organisms both on hard (e.g. Leiopathes glaberrima, Parantipathes larix, Callogorgia verticillata and Viminella flagellum) and soft bottoms (e.g. Isidella elongata, Funiculina...

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Among Mediterranean habitat-forming alcyonaceans, the sea fan Eunicella verrucosa is known to form dense forests at circalittoral depths, providing seascape complexity and sustaining a rich associated fauna. Its occurrence in the Tavolara–Punta Coda Cavallo Marine Protected Area (NE Sardinia) has never been deeply investigated despite this area...

The fortuitous discovery of living colonies of white corals on the unexplored bottoms of Santa Maria di Leuca (Ionian Sea), 18 years ago, represented an unprecedented turning point in the study of the Mediterranean bathyal ecosystems. A long-term explorative and descriptive study program was carried out in this area, also stimulating the search...

The predatory activity of the asteroid Peltaster placenta (Müller and Troschel, 1842) on the black coral Parantipathes larix (Esper, 1790) is here described for the first time based on video footage obtained during a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) survey conducted in the Pontine Archipelago (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Mediterranean...

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