Maldives Marine Life

Marine life of Maldivian waters

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Antipathes black coral (no English common name)

Antipathes spinulosa

Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 283929, checked 2026-10-31).

Possibly present in the Maldives

English
Antipathes black coral (no English common name)
Scientific
Antipathes spinulosa
Dhivehi
No recorded Dhivehi name
Group
Black corals
Family
Antipathidae (black corals)
IUCN status
NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE)CITES Appendix II
Record in the Maldives
Possibly present

Description

A black coral: a colony with a dark, horny, flexible skeleton covered in a thin living tissue that is usually white, grey, yellow or brownish, so the colony itself rarely looks black. Colonies branch like small bushes or fans and grow mostly on steep walls and in deeper water. It is told apart from related species only by close examination of the skeleton.

In the Maldives

Recorded from the Maldives: literature records via OBIS (IndOBIS). Only one kind of evidence was found, so it is listed as possibly present.

Sources

Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.