Maldives Marine Life

Marine life of Maldivian waters

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Ptilella soft corals (no English common name)
No photo available
Photo: Julien Savoie / iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0 (view on iNaturalist)iNaturalist research-grade observation. Shows Ptilella grandis. Collected specimen photographed out of water. Coral photo: species not verifiable from image.

Ptilella soft corals (no English common name)

Ptilella

Genus-level entry: species are told apart only by microscopic features (sclerites). Valid genus (WoRMS, AphiaID 158291, checked 2026-10-31). Species recorded from the Maldives: Ptilella inflata.

Possibly present in the Maldives

English
Ptilella soft corals (no English common name)
Scientific
Ptilella
Dhivehi
No recorded Dhivehi name
Group
Soft corals and sea fans
Family
Pennatulidae (sea pens)
IUCN status
NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE) as a genus; most species not assessed
Record in the Maldives
Possibly present

Description

A sea pen: a feather-shaped octocoral that anchors in sand or mud with a fleshy stalk. In the Maldives it is known from specimens and literature records from deep water, below normal diving depth. Species are told apart only by microscopic features.

In the Maldives

Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=8). 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.