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Swiftia simplex is so far only known from the west coast of the USA (California), across Canada to the Gulf of Alaska and from parts of the Bering Sea.
This horn coral was formerly known as Psammogorgia simplex.
While many deep-water gorgonians are white or cream-colored, Swiftia simplex stands out with its brick-red color.
Colonies of the gorgonian are, whip-like, not always erect, slightly branched, or mostly unbranched, they are encountered over muddy bottoms in oxygen-rich zones.
The polyps are generally located with spindle-shaped sclerites in the walls and near / at the tentacle bases, more or less arranged in chevrons.
Etymology.
Earlier generic name (Nutting, 1909), psammo- = sand); simplex- = simple, perhaps alluding to the very simple, usually unbranched colony usually found at sites with soft soil. However, there is no derivation for the species name in Nuttings (1909) first description.
Synonyms:
Psammogorgia simplex Nutting, 1909 · unaccepted > superseded combination (original combination)
Swiftia simplex (Nutting, 1909) · unaccepted > superseded combination
Source:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335208121_A_review_of_gorgonian_coral_species_Cnidaria_Octocorallia_Alcyonacea_held_in_the_Santa_Barbara_Museum_of_Natural_History_research_collection_focus_on_species_from_Scleraxonia_Holaxonia_Calcaxonia_-_Pa
Author: Elizabeth Anne Horvath
July 2019ZooKeys 860:183-306
DOI:10.3897/zookeys.860.34317
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
This horn coral was formerly known as Psammogorgia simplex.
While many deep-water gorgonians are white or cream-colored, Swiftia simplex stands out with its brick-red color.
Colonies of the gorgonian are, whip-like, not always erect, slightly branched, or mostly unbranched, they are encountered over muddy bottoms in oxygen-rich zones.
The polyps are generally located with spindle-shaped sclerites in the walls and near / at the tentacle bases, more or less arranged in chevrons.
Etymology.
Earlier generic name (Nutting, 1909), psammo- = sand); simplex- = simple, perhaps alluding to the very simple, usually unbranched colony usually found at sites with soft soil. However, there is no derivation for the species name in Nuttings (1909) first description.
Synonyms:
Psammogorgia simplex Nutting, 1909 · unaccepted > superseded combination (original combination)
Swiftia simplex (Nutting, 1909) · unaccepted > superseded combination
Source:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335208121_A_review_of_gorgonian_coral_species_Cnidaria_Octocorallia_Alcyonacea_held_in_the_Santa_Barbara_Museum_of_Natural_History_research_collection_focus_on_species_from_Scleraxonia_Holaxonia_Calcaxonia_-_Pa
Author: Elizabeth Anne Horvath
July 2019ZooKeys 860:183-306
DOI:10.3897/zookeys.860.34317
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
