Rough Gorgonian, Murricea squarrosa
Rough Gorgonian, Murricea squarrosa. Underwater photograph taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, January 2026. Photograph courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo. Identification courtesy of Greg Timms, youtube.com/@CoralmasterdivesPuerto-Vallarta/videos.
Phylogeny: The Rough Gorgonian, Muricea squarrosa (Verrill, 1869), is an octocoral member of the Plexauridae Family of Gorgonians. The Muricea Genus is one of five genera in the Plexauridae Family and there are thirty-three species in the Muricea Genus. They are also known as the Shaggy Gorgonian. The species name squarrosa comes from the Latin adjective meaning “rough”, “scabby” or “shaggy”. They are known in Mexico as the Gorgonia Rosa del Pacífico.
Morphology: The Rough Gorgonian is a colonial organism that is composed of thousands of individual polyps. Gorgonians have flexible branches that often sway with the currents, unlike stony corals. The branches have a hollow axial core that does not contain sclerites and is composed of a horn-like material call gorgonin. Gorgonin is a protein which is exclusive to the gorgonians and which contains significant amounts of iodine and bromine. Rough Gorgonians have brown to reddish-brown branches and white polyps that provide a shaggy appearance when extended. The base and main stem lack polyps. The individual polyp cups (calyces) can reach 2.6 mm in height and 1.7 mm in width. Rough Gorgonian colonies reach a maximum of 23 cm (9.1 inches) in height.
Habitat and Distribution: Rough Gorgonians are found attached to hard surfaces such as coral, pilings, rocks, and wreckage, in current-swept areas. They live at depths between 2 m (6 feet) and 40 m (131 feet). Rough Gorgonians are a subtropical to tropical Eastern Pacific species that are found in all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from the west coast of the Baja Peninsula.
Diet: The Rough Gorgonian is a nocturnal sessile suspension feeder that captures drifting food in the water column by individual polyps with small tentacles. These nutrients will reach all members of the colony through channels in the gastrovascular cavity. The Rough Gorgonian’s diet consists of water-borne prey like plankton, larvae, and eggs. They are an azooxanthellate coral.
Predation: Rough Gorgonian polyps are eaten by butterfly fishes and damselfishes. They are also preyed upon byh Gastropods and Sea Stars.
Reproduction: Rough Gorgonians can reproduce asexually through budding and sexually through spawning. During spawning, mass amounts of eggs and sperm are released into the water and fuse into gametes. The larvae will eventually settle on a substrate and begin to form a polyp. From here, a colony grows through cloning (asexual reproduction).
Ecosystem Interactions: Rough Gorgonians are a poorly studied and documented species. Their parasitic, commensal, and mutualistic relationships have not been formally documented.
Human Interactions: Rough Gorgonians have a very limited impact on human activities. From a conservation perspective they have not been formally evaluated.
Synonyms: Eumuricea squarrosa and Muricea (Eumuricea) squarrosa