#Alcyonium

[pastedpast]

Yep, I'm a pushover for an attractive book cover. This one by Edward Brooke-Hitching (I have another by him: 'The Devil's Atlas') features a section of the central panel of the triptych 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' by Hieronymus Bosch, painted between 1490 and 1510. It is on display at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain [been there, seen it!]. I've not bought as many books as I usually do this year, so I felt justified in indulging on a splurge this festive season and this is one of my fancies. I started looking through it last night.

It is filled with pictures of paintings, many of which I have never seen before (and a few I wish I could now 'unsee' e.g. the fresco depiction of Hermes and his disturbingly outsized phallus!). One chapter which caught my attention is called 'Dead Man's Fingers - Ceyx and Alcyone', which mentions the soft coral, 'Alcyonium digitatum', (known commonly as Dead Man's Fingers, and just do happens to be the strange spongey thing I found on the beach the other day). The stuff I found was all dried up. This is what it looks like when it's alive:

The chapter tells of the Greek myth of Ceyx, king of Trachis and his wife, Alcyone. They inadvertently got on the wrong side of god of gods, Zeus (not difficult to do, he was pretty petulant) and eventually ended up being transformed into seaborne birds known as halcyons (what we now call kingfishers). The book explains that the belief at the time, based upon that of Roman author and naturalist, Pliny the Elder, was that the kingfisher laid its eggs on the shore and that its nest was in the soft coral.

I need to read up a bit more on this, e.g. Wikipedia page on Alcyone and Ceyx in order to link it up with a previous post of mine about 'halcyon days' (link here). Basically, it's about the fact that Alcyone's father was King Aeolia (aka Aeolus) of Aeolia, god of the winds (you may remember him from Homer's 'Odyssey') who had the power to restrain the winds and calm the waves did so for a brief period so that his daughter, now in the form of a bird, could lay and nurture her eggs.

The book states that the gods "ordered that during the nesting period at the height of winter, the seas be calm and the weather still, so as not to interfere. These were the halcyon days." Brooke-Hitching references Pliny's belief in the soft coral being used by the birds as nest, but he doesn't link him directly to this myth , nor is Aristotle (as mentioned in my linked post) mentioned. Furthermore, the Wikipedia page connects the myth to the Roman poet Ovid and Latin scholar Hygius (apparently, it is not clear whether Hyginus was a native of the Iberian Peninsula or of Alexandria in Egypt), both writing around the turn of the first century.

As with most myths and their various retellings by different authors and poets over the centuries, it's complicated and probably impossible to narrow the information down into one definitive explanation. Scan-reading the Wikipedia page, I pick out that the phrase 'halcyon days' has "come to refer to any peaceful time" but its "proper meaning, however, is that of a lucky break, or a bright interval set in the midst of adversity; just as the days of calm and mild weather are set in the height of winter for the sake of the kingfishers' egg-laying according to the myth. Kingfishers, however, do not live by the sea, so Ovid's tale (and therefore Pliny the naturalist's belief) is not based on any actual observations of the species and in fact refers to a mythical bird only later identified with the kingfisher".

I suppose I may return to this topic one day, but really I just wanted to link the story of the myth to my previous posts regarding the soft coral I found recently and the scrapbook snippet about halcyon days which I posted earlier this year.

first draft; NEEDS RE-READING.

POSTSCRIPT: My friend Gareth has mentioned Aeolian harps to me, which are instruments, usually stringed, played by the wind and named after Aeolus, god of the wind. An example of this concept is the Singing Ringing Tree near Burnley which I posted a picture of here.

[sillageprofondeur]

alcyon jaune

Alcyonium digitatum

[tempe-corals]

Distribution géographique

Méditerranée, Atlantique Nord-Est Zones DORIS : ● Europe (côtes françaises), ○ [Atlantique Nord-Est, Manche et mer du Nord françaises], ○ [Méditerranée française]

Sarcodictyon catenatum est présent en Méditerranée occidentale, en Adriatique et en Atlantique Nord-Est jusqu'aux îles Britanniques où il devient rare sur les côtes de mer du Nord. Le corail brique est l'un des stolonifères, après Clavularia crassa, communs en Méditerranée occidentale. Sur les côtes françaises, pour les plongeurs, il est principalement observé en Catalogne vers l'Espagne.

Biotope

Sarcodictyon catenatum vit de la surface jusqu'à plus de 200 m de profondeur, principalement sur et sous les pierres, divers substrats* durs, algues calcaires, rhizomes de la posidonie, grosses ascidies... Plus rarement, il pourra encroûter l'axe de gorgones mortes et ressembler dans ce cas à Alcyonium coralloides.

[reefscom]

Smurf Polyps, An Enigmatic Blue Soft Coral - https://reefs.com/2018/02/19/smurf-polyps-enigmatic-blue-soft-coral/

[earthstory]

undefined

anikaitorproducciones

Alcyonium acaule en una caverna en la herradura

Alcyonium acaule - a Mediterranean soft coral species

[slimemoldscholar]

biology posting

(also a brand of rum and the gills of a crab)

[ID: A painting of a bunch of knights putting their swords on a central table. The table is labeled "dead man's fingers" and the knights are labeled “Orchis mascula,” “Alcyonium digitatum,” “Codium fragile,” “Syringella amphispicula,” “Oenanthe crocata,” “Xylaria polymorpha,” and “Decaisnea fargesii.”]

[brilmans]

Dode dodemansduim

Brilmans in het buitenland

Het heeft wat voeten in de aarde, wat naalden in de arm en wat wattenstaven in de neus gehad, maar Brilmans is in het buitenland: tijd voor wonderbaarlijke vondsten uit den vreemde. Te beginnen met een zacht koraal uit Normandië.

Grandcamp-Maisy

Om een lang verhaal kort te maken: het werd geen Spanje -te veel gedoe- en daarom vier ik dit jaar weer ouderwets vakantie in Frankrijk. Langs de Atlantische kust. De hoofd bestemming is Saint-Vincent-sur-Jard maar omdat lange autoritten ons niet gezien zijn, vertoeven we eerst een paar dagen in Grandcamp-Maisy. Normandië dus.

Mijn vorige bezoeken aan Normandië leverden een grote hoeveelheid mesozoïsche fossielen op en volgens een doorgaans goed geïnformeerde bron moesten er ook bij Grandcamp veel te vinden zijn. Ik had dus goede hoop dat een beetje struinen langs de kust een rijk gesorteerde verzameling aan fossiele tweekleppigen, buik- en armpotigen en mos- en bloemdiertjes op zou leveren. Dat is daar doorgaans het te vinden spul. Met een beetje mazzel misschien zelfs een Ammoniet of, nog beter, zoals mij in de zomer van 2017 overkwam een tand van reusachtig zeereptiel.

Fossiele armpotigen uit Grancamp-Maisy

Brachiopoden

Hoewel de kustlijn er hoopgevend uitzag, in het bijzonder bij laag water, lieten de fossielen zich maar lastig vinden. Een wandeling van de haven tot vlak voorbij de monding van de Rivière Le Veret leverde mij slechts een hand vol Braciopoda op. Niet bijzonder spectaculair dus. Toch wandelde ik uiteindelijk monter terug naar het appartement.

Vlak nadat ik rechtsomkeer had gemaakt ontwaarde ik namelijk tussen de blokken kalksteen een koraal. Het oogde fossiel, maar toen ik het opraapte bleek dat niet het geval. Dit stuk was buitengewoon licht en tevens fluweelachtig zacht. Dit stuk moest recent zijn gestorven. En hoewel ik er nog nooit een gezien, laat staan in handen had, wist ik het ter plaatse te determineren. Deze vondst stond al geruime tijd op mijn verlanglijst: de dodemansduim.

De dodemansduim uit Grandcamp-Maisy

De dodemansduim

In onze Noordzee komt slechts een koraal voor en dat is de Alcyonium digitatum. Het betreft een koraal uit de onderklasse Octocorallia die behoort tot de orde Alcyonacea ofwel zachte koralen. Deze koralen danken hun naam aan het feit dat ze in de regel -er zijn een paar uitzonderingen- geen hard skelet vormen, maar hun stevigheid ontlenen aan een vlezige of leerachtige weefsels waarin zich skeletnaalden (sclerieten) bevinden.

Omdat het ons enige koraal is en derhalve een mooie soort voor in de collectie, keek ik er al lang naar uit een te vinden. Bij voorkeur in Nederland. Maar omdat dit tot op heden niet wilde lukken, ben ik dik tevreden met dit exemplaar uit den vreemde.

[boudhabar]

alcyonium digitatum 

[thegrandimago]

Taken the same day as the previous post, this is a dead man's fingers (Alcyonium digitatum), or död mans hand. In Sweden, they occur on the west coast within the sub-littoral zone, wherever there is strong water flow, attached to rocks, shells, and stones in areas uninhabitable for algae forming whole colonies, even occasionally on crabs and gastropods. Because of their dark environments, these corals don't feed with zooxanthellate and instead feed on plankton. #animal #animals #djur #wildlife #natur #naturliv #nature #invertebrate #invertebrates #octocoral #fauna #coral #corals #koralldjur #softcoral #softcorals #hornkorall #hornkoraller #cnidarian #cnidarians #animalia #cnidaria #octocorallia #alcyonacea #alcyoniidae #alcyonium #alcyoniumdigitatum #deadmansfingers #dödmanshand (at Klubbans biologiska station) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeI7qp5q5m3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[italianaradio]

Paradiso di creature sottomarine nei mari di Calabria

Nuovo post su italianaradio https://www.italianaradio.it/index.php/paradiso-di-creature-sottomarine-nei-mari-di-calabria/

Paradiso di creature sottomarine nei mari di Calabria

Paradiso di creature sottomarine nei mari di Calabria

Antipathella subpinnata, Leptogorgia sarmentosa, Aplidium nodiferum, Alcyonium palmatum, Alcyonium coralloides, Savaglia savaglia, Pennatula phosphorea. E poi ancora: Scyliorhinu Scanicula, Paramuricea clavata, Phyllangia mouchezii, Pinna nobilis, Astroides calicularis, Alicia mirabilis, Flabelina pedata. Non dimenticando: Hyppocampus guttulatus, Hyppocampus hyppocampo, Leptosammia pruvoti, Cratena peregrina, Janolus cristatus, Posidonia oceanica, Aplysia dactilomela. Questo che gli addetti ai lavori hanno già riconosciuto, è solo uno stralcio dell’elenco di creature marine che la Calabria ospita nei fondali dei circa 800 km delle sue coste. Creature splendide, dalle forme e dai colori che anche il più geniale dei pittori non riuscirebbe a realizzare, che popolano i nostri fondali, a profondità non così proibitive al punto che tecnici della materia hanno raccolto un “book” fotografico dal valore scientifico e ambientale, a detta degli stessi esperti, di rilievo internazionale. Tutto ciò dimostra come le coste calabresi siano un patrimonio ambientale e naturalistico talmente sorprendente, agli addetti ai lavori e non, che l’intera comunità scientifica internazionale è sempre più attenta alla nostra regione. E’ questo il giudizio unanime che è emerso a conclusione del workshop scientifico di presentazione dei risultati intermedi del progetto “I siti di importanza comunitaria della Calabria “Sic marini”, che si è tenuto mercoledì scorso nel Centro Congressi dell’Unical ed al quale hanno partecipato i diversi soggetti partner del progetto finanziato dalla Regione Calabria – Dipartimento Ambiente e Territorio con fondi POR Calabria FESR-FSE 2014-2020. Piano di Azione – Az e 6 Tutela e Valorizzazione del Patrimonio Ambientale Culturale: Azioni 6.5.A1 – Monitoraggio degli habitat e delle specie marine all’interno dei SIC. Il workshop è stato organizzato dall’Arpacal (Agenzia regionale per la protezione dell’ambiente della Calabria), attraverso il suo Centro Regionale Strategia Marina, diretto dal dr. Emilio Cellini, con la collaborazione della Regione Calabria, dell’ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale), dell’Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, del Dipartimento di Biologia Ecologia e Scienze della Terra dell’UNICAL e del Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica Energetica e Gestionale dell’UNICAL. Il Comitato Organizzatore del workshop – che ha raccolto l’apprezzamento del pubblico presente, composto da tecnici, studiosi e appassionati della materia ma anche i delegati delle Capitanerie di Porto della Calabria, che collaborano a 360° con il Centro Strategia Marina dell’Arpacal – ha rilasciato oggi gli atti ufficiali delle relazioni illustrate nel convegno. Tra le diverse relazioni presenti, che spaziano nelle altrettanto diverse sfaccettature di questo progetto, anche quella di Francesco Pacienza (nella foto), un fotografo e giornalista subacqueo professionista tra i più talentuosi in Calabria, nonché docente all’Istituto Europeo del Design, che ha “donato” alla comunità scientifica e all’opinione pubblica trenta scatti fantastici di altrettante creature marine individuate in vari siti calabresi.

Antipathella subpinnata, Leptogorgia sarmentosa, Aplidium nodiferum, Alcyonium palmatum, Alcyonium coralloides, Savaglia savaglia, Pennatula phosphorea. E poi ancora: Scyliorhinu Scanicula, Paramuricea clavata, Phyllangia mouchezii, Pinna nobilis, Astroides calicularis, Alicia mirabilis, Flabelina pedata. Non dimenticando: Hyppocampus guttulatus, Hyppocampus hyppocampo, Leptosammia pruvoti, Cratena peregrina, Janolus cristatus, Posidonia oceanica, Aplysia dactilomela. Questo che gli addetti ai lavori hanno già riconosciuto, è solo uno stralcio dell’elenco di creature marine che la Calabria ospita nei fondali dei circa 800 km delle sue coste. Creature splendide, dalle forme e dai colori che anche il più geniale dei pittori non riuscirebbe a realizzare, che popolano i nostri fondali, a profondità non così proibitive al punto che tecnici della materia hanno raccolto un “book” fotografico dal valore scientifico e ambientale, a detta degli stessi esperti, di rilievo internazionale. Tutto ciò dimostra come le coste calabresi siano un patrimonio ambientale e naturalistico talmente sorprendente, agli addetti ai lavori e non, che l’intera comunità scientifica internazionale è sempre più attenta alla nostra regione. E’ questo il giudizio unanime che è emerso a conclusione del workshop scientifico di presentazione dei risultati intermedi del progetto “I siti di importanza comunitaria della Calabria “Sic marini”, che si è tenuto mercoledì scorso nel Centro Congressi dell’Unical ed al quale hanno partecipato i diversi soggetti partner del progetto finanziato dalla Regione Calabria – Dipartimento Ambiente e Territorio con fondi POR Calabria FESR-FSE 2014-2020. Piano di Azione – Az e 6 Tutela e Valorizzazione del Patrimonio Ambientale Culturale: Azioni 6.5.A1 – Monitoraggio degli habitat e delle specie marine all’interno dei SIC. Il workshop è stato organizzato dall’Arpacal (Agenzia regionale per la protezione dell’ambiente della Calabria), attraverso il suo Centro Regionale Strategia Marina, diretto dal dr. Emilio Cellini, con la collaborazione della Regione Calabria, dell’ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale), dell’Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, del Dipartimento di Biologia Ecologia e Scienze della Terra dell’UNICAL e del Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica Energetica e Gestionale dell’UNICAL. Il Comitato Organizzatore del workshop – che ha raccolto l’apprezzamento del pubblico presente, composto da tecnici, studiosi e appassionati della materia ma anche i delegati delle Capitanerie di Porto della Calabria, che collaborano a 360° con il Centro Strategia Marina dell’Arpacal – ha rilasciato oggi gli atti ufficiali delle relazioni illustrate nel convegno. Tra le diverse relazioni presenti, che spaziano nelle altrettanto diverse sfaccettature di questo progetto, anche quella di Francesco Pacienza (nella foto), un fotografo e giornalista subacqueo professionista tra i più talentuosi in Calabria, nonché docente all’Istituto Europeo del Design, che ha “donato” alla comunità scientifica e all’opinione pubblica trenta scatti fantastici di altrettante creature marine individuate in vari siti calabresi.

[cosenzapage]

Paradiso di creature sottomarine nei mari di Calabria

http://www.cosenzapage.it/media/2019/05/49A49C35-72C9-41DB-A7C1-1815FE111427.png - #CosenzaPage ANTIPATHELLA subpinnata, LEPTOGORGIA sarmentosa, APLIDIUM nodiferum, ALCYONIUM palmatum, ALCYONIUM coralloides, SAVAGLIA savaglia, PENNATULA phosphorea. E poi ancora: SCYLIORHINU Scanicula, PARAMURICEA clavata, PHYLLANGIA mouchezii,  PINNA nobilis, ASTROIDES calicularis, ALICIA mirabilis, ...

[rebeccawebbart]

Considerations on Area’s to Develop Next Semester: British Corals

Dead man's fingers (Alcyonium digitatum)

photo by: Gordon Lang

Photo: Judith Oakley

Location: Alcyonium digitatum is recorded along the Atlantic Coasts of Europe from Portugal to Norway, in Iceland.

Southern cup coral (Caryophyllia (Caryophyllia) inornata)

Photo: Paul Newland

Photo: Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)

Location: Recorded from Lough Hyne, County Cork; Ardnoe Point, Sound of Jura; Great Cumbrae; Skomer; Lundy; the north coast of Devon and Bardsey Island north west Wales.

Devonshire cup coral (Caryophyllia (Caryophyllia) smithii)

Photo: Fiona Crouch

Photo: Dr Keith Hiscock

Location: Found from Shetland, north eastern England, the south west, Wales, Ireland and north western Scotland.

Weymouth carpet coral (Hoplangia durotrix)

Photo:Dr Keith Hiscock

Location: Recorded in southern England as far east as west Sussex, in north Devon and at Skomer in south-west Wales. The distribution map indicates Weymouth Bay, the type localities and west Sussex where it was photographed at the 'wreck' of an artificial harbour.

Sunset cup coral (Leptopsammia pruvoti)

Photo:

Found throughout the Mediterranean west of Cyprus and in the Adriatic. Also on the Atlantic coasts of SW England, the Channel Isles, Brittany and Portugal. It has not been recorded despite targeted survey in Madeira, the Azores, or the Canary Isles.

While on the topic of strengthening the roots and connections generating  realism between the work and its environment, and the possibility of creating sight specific work, I began thinking about how the corals i had been focusing on were tropical corals, not local to Cornwall/UK. What sense would it make bringing tropical corals onto the beaches of Cornwall? Then i decided to research if there were any corals that inhabited the UK’s waters and found a collection of British Corals that all can be found in Cornwall and Devon waters, to make this possibility more relevant and factual, as although this is art, I still want the work to be influenced by truthful facts as my main aim is to Educate while establishing connections between the hidden dangers we are creating in our oceans and our relationship/influence to it. 

[rbbox]

Alcyonium digitatum

Alcyonium digitatum

Alcyonium digitatum or dead man's fingers is a species of soft coral in the Alcyoniidae family. It is found around the coasts of the northern Atlantic Ocean. Description Dead man's fingers is a colonial coral forming clumps of yellow, white or cream-coloured fleshy masses of finger-like lobes. The surface layer include many sclerites which form a crust. The individual polyps are white and translucent, and project from the leathery surface when feeding, giving the colony a furry appearance. Distribution and habitat Dead man's fingers is found along the Atlantic coasts of north west Europe from Portugal to Norway. The species also occurs in parts of Canada and the north eastern coast of the United States, the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy. The polyps live in colonies attached to bedrock, boulders, stones and occasionally the shells of crabs and gastropods. They are most plentiful in areas with strong water movement and where there is insufficient sunlight for algae to predominate. They are usually found in the sublittoral zone down to about fifty metres. This coral is common around the coasts of Britain and Ireland where Alcyonium glomeratum and Alcyonium hibernicum are also found but these are much rarer and misidentification is unlikely. Biology The colonies of dead man's fingers are nearly always either male or female, although a small number of hermaphrodite colonies are found. Colony growth occurs mainly in the first half of the year with the polyps becoming inactive in late summer, and the base tissue turning reddish or brownish due to the growth of algae and hydroids on the surface. At this time the gonads are developing and spawning occurs in December and January. Populations have been found to synchronize their gametogenesis and spawning activities. Fertilisation takes place externally and the embryos float for a few days before developing into free swimming larvae. Most of these soon settle on a suitable substrate and new polyps develop but a few may remain in the zooplankton for some time and disperse over a wide area. Colonies have been known to live for twenty years. The polyps feed at various times of the day with their tentacles extended. They are suspension feeders gathering plankton from the water with the help of cilia, and absorbing oxygen at the same time. source - Wikipedia Dear friends, if you liked our post, please do not forget to share and comment like this. If you want to share your information with us, please send us your post with your name and photo at RBbox.in@gmail.com. We will publish your post with your name and photo. thanks for joining us www.rbbox.in

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[reefscom]

Three New FAMILIES Of Soft Corals From South Africa! - https://reefs.com/2017/12/13/three-new-families-soft-corals-south-africa/

[leedsomics]

Universal target-enrichment baits for anthozoan (Cnidaria) phylogenomics: New approaches to long-standing problems

Anthozoans (e.g., corals, anemones) are an ecologically important and diverse group of marine metazoans that occur from shallow to deep waters worldwide. However, our understanding of the evolutionary relationships among the ~7500 species within this class is hindered by the lack of phylogenetically informative markers that can be reliably sequenced across a diversity of taxa. We designed and tested 16,308 RNA baits to capture 720 Ultraconserved Element loci and 1,071 exon loci. Library preparation and target enrichment was performed on 33 taxa from all orders within the class Anthozoa. Following Illumina sequencing and Trinity assembly, we recovered 1,774 of 1,791 targeted loci. The mean number of loci recovered from each species was 638 {+/-} 222, with more loci recovered from octocorals (783 {+/-} 138 loci) than hexacorals (475 {+/-} 187 loci). Phylogenetically informative sites ranged from 26-49% for alignments at differing hierarchical taxonomic levels (e.g., Anthozoa, Octocorallia, Hexacorallia). The percent of variable sites within each of three genera (Acropora, Alcyonium, and Sinularia) for which multiple species were sequenced ranged from 4.7-30%. Maximum likelihood analyses recovered highly resolved trees with topologies matching those supported by other studies, including the monophyly of the order Scleractinia. Our results demonstrate the utility of this target-enrichment approach to resolve phylogenetic relationships from relatively old to recent divergences. Re-designing the baits with improved affinities to capture loci within each sub-class will provide a valuable toolset to address systematic questions and further our understanding of the timing of diversifications in the class Anthozoa. http://dlvr.it/PhL8lG

[2tanksphotography]

ScubaKaz & dead mans fingers (Alcyonium digitatum) (at DiveArranmore)