Galapagos Black Coral, Antipathes galapagenis

Galapagos Black Coral, Antipathes galapagenis. Provided by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, March 2009. Height: 36 cm (14 inches).

Phylogeny:  Galapagos Black Coral, Antipathes galapagensis (Deichman, 1941), is a hexacoral in the Antipathidae Family of Black Corals. The genus Antipathes is one nine genera in this Family, and there are sixty-seven species in this genus. They are also known as the Yellow Cup Black Coral, the Yellow Polyp Black Coral, or just Black Coral and in Mexico as coral negro.

Morphology: Galapagos Black Coral forms tall, bushy colonies, irregularly dotted with yellow polyps. The polyps are large reaching at least 1 mm in diameter. The polyp tentacles are long, at least twice as long as the polyp diameter, and the tentacles narrow to a fine tip.  Unlike reef-building corals, the polyps do not form coralites (individual polyp skeletons). Instead the skeleton is covered with a living tissue (coensarc), from which the polyps project. Some specimens are yellowish-green in color. Colonies reach about 2 m (6 feet) in height.

Habitat and Distribution: Galapagos Black Coral is found attached to coral, rock, and wreckage. It seems to prefer sloping rocky substrates. They live as shallow as 3 m (10 feet) and to a depth of 76 m (249 feet). The largest colonies are found below 20 m (66’).  In Mexican waters Galapagos Black Coral is found in the central Gulf of California, from Bahía de los Ángeles south to Guatemala. They are absent from the West coast of the Baja Peninsula.

Diet: Galapagos Black Corals are suspension feeders, using their tentacles to filter zooplankton from the surrounding water. Most black Corals are located in areas of strong current. This increases the amount of plankton-rich water that passes over their tentacles. Black corals are azooxanthellate.

Predators: Galapagos Black Corals are eaten by fish, gastropods, decapods, and the Green Sea Turtle, Chelonia mydas.  Predation does not seem to significantly impact Black Coral growth.

Reproduction: Galapagos Black Corals are gonochoric (male or female for life), both at the polyp and colony levels. Reproduction can be asexual, through budding, or sexual. Sexual reproduction involves broadcast spawning, with external fertilization. The fertilized eggs become planktonic larva.

Ecosystem Interactions: The Below-the-Spine Shrimp, Periclimenes infraspinis, the Tricornuta Pontoniine Shrimp, and the Longnose Hawkfish, Oxycirrhites typus, are often found living among the branches of Galapagos Black Corals. These appear to be commensal relationships, with epibiont gaining structure and cover, with no harm to the coral. Zoanthids in the genus Parazoanthus grow on Galapagos Black Coral and may overgrow and kill their host.

Human Interactions: The genus name Antipathes means “against disease” or “against evil”. For more than one thousand years, black corals have been viewed as having medical properties around the world for issues ranging from eye problems to aphrodisiacs. The indigenous Seri Indiana of the Gulf of California, collected fragments of this species to apply, as a powder, to wounds to promote healing. They also made a tea from it to treat circulatory and heart problems. Additionally, black corals have been collected for religious purposes and as jewelry. In modern times, over collecting has endangered some species of black coral. From a conservation perspective the Galapagos Black Coral is currently considered to be Data Deficient.

Synonyms: None