stoloniferous soft coral Clavularia frankliniana

Clavularia frankliniana is found in Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia Island at depths from 12 to 675? meters [2,3,4,7,9,22]. C. frankliniana is nearly transparent, white or pinkish to yellowish white [2]. C. frankliniana can be found on rock or gravel bottoms, attached to stones, worm tubes, and shells (shown here attached to sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri) [2,3,4,8].


An individual polyp (zooid) of Clavularia frankliniana averages 8.3 millimeters in height (can be up to 25 millimeters), has eight feathery tentacles, and is connected by ribbon-like or spreading stolons to other polyps [4,8,16,18]. The stolon adheres to hard objects thus attaching the colonies [18]. Individual polyps die within 1.5 years though clones may live much longer [7].

C. frankliniana has a diet linked to food resuspended from the seafloor, probably by currents, bivalve molluscs, echinoderms, and fish; its polyps are located close to the bottom, and it feeds on diatoms, protozoans, foraminiferans, nematodes, and invertebrate larvae [21]. C. frankliniana has few predators and is preyed upon by the nudibranchs Tritoniella belli and Notaeolidia gigas and also by the sea spiders Colossendeis robusta, Colossendeis megalonyx, and Thavmastopycnon striata [1,3,4].


Extracts from Clavularia frankliniana cause tube-foot retraction in the seastars Perknaster fuscus and Odontaster validus which indicates feeding deterrence [4]. Extracts of the nudibranch Tritoniella belli and the soft coral C. frankliniana have chimyl alcohol in common. The common predatory seastar Odontaster validus shows feeding deterrence to Tritoniella belli mantle tissue and to chimyl alcohol [6]. Tritoniella belli probably defends itself chemically against predators using chimyl alcohol that it obtains from C. frankliniana.



Possibly Clavularia frankliniana , at Couloir Cliffs at Granite Harbor.

C. frankliniana has been measured at population densities of 0.18 and 1,337.3 polyps per square meter at Explorer's Cove and Arrival Heights respectively [7].

Taxonomic Note: In 1906, Kukenthal changed Clavularia frankliniana to Anthelia frankliniana [11]. In 1929, Molander changed Clavularia frankliniana to Pachyclavularia cylindrica var. frankliniana [9]. In 1940, Gohar reassigned Anthelia frankliniana to Clavularia frankliniana and affirmed Clavularia as the genus instead of Pachyclavularia [12]. In 1960, noting Gohar, Verseveldt affirmed Molander's change to the genus Pachyclavularia and noted Clavularia frankliniana as properly being in the genus Pachyclavularia (though this work only sorted out genera and didn't sort out species characters) [10]. In 1974, it is referred to as Clavularia cylindrica [19]. In 1990, Clavularia cylindrica is referenced from original description and reports in south Africa; author notes inadequate descriptions in literature and need for revision of genus [20]. In 1990, Pachyclavularia cylindrica is noted as resembling Pachyclavularia frankliniana so the two species are deemed distinct [17]. Recent non-taxonomic work referred to this soft coral as Clavularia frankliniana; those authors verified the ID as Clavularia frankliniana with Frederick M Bayer of the Dept of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution [14,4,6,7]. The Smithsonian's US National Museum Polar Invertebrate Catalog refers to Clavularia frankliniana [15]. In 1981, Bayer published a key to Octocorallia genera which sorted out Clavularia and Pachyclavularia so it is assumed his later identification of the genus of this organism as Clavularia frankliniana is based on that published key [16]. Reassignment to the genus Clavularia appears to be unpublished as of 17 September 1999.

1: Ecological Monographs 44(1):105- 128, 1974; 2: Ecological and Faunistic Investigations of the Marine Benthos at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. John Holmes Dearborn. Ph. D. Dissertation, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 1965; 3: Antarctic Ecology, Volume 1. MW Holdgate, ed. NY: Academic Press, 1970. pp.244-258; 4: Marine Biology 122(3):461-470, 1995; 5: Science 197:55-58, 1977; 6: Journal of Chemical Ecology  20(12):3361-3372, 1994; 7: Antarctic Communities: Species, Structure, and Survival. B Battaglia, J Valencia, and DWH Walton, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. pp.309-315; 8: Coelentera. I. Alcyonaria. National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904. Natural History. Volume III. Zoology and Botany (Invertebrata: Marine Algae, Musci). SJ Hickson. London: British Museum, 1907; 9: Die Octactiniarien. AR Molander. Further Zoological Results of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1903. Volume II, Number 2. Stockholm: PA Norstedt & Soner, 1929; 10: Temminckia, a Journal of Systematic Zoology 10:209-250, 1960; 11: Alcyonacea. W Kukenthal. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition auf dem Dampfer "Valdivia" 1898-1899. Volume 13, Part 1. Jena: G Fischer, 1906; 12: A Revision of Some Genera of the Stolonifera (with an amended system of classification and the description of two new species). HAF Gohar. Publications of the Marine Biological Station, Ghardaqa (Red Sea). Number 3. Cairo: Fouad I University, 1940; 13: American Museum Novitates 2282:1-19, 1967; 14: Marc Slattery, personal communication, 1999; 15: US National Museum Polar Invertebrate Catalog at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/usap/usapdb.html; 16: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 94(3):902- 947, 1981; 17: Fauna der Antarktis. J Sieg & JW Wagele, eds. Berlin : P. Parey, 1990; 18: Coral Reef Octocorals, an Illustrated Guide to the Soft Corals, Sea Fans, and Sea Pens Inhabiting the Coral Reefs of Northern Natal. GC Williams. Durban, South Africa: Durban Natural Science Museum, 1993; 19: Tethys 6(3):631-653, 1974; 20: Systematics and Zoogeography of Southern African Octocoral Cnidarians. GC Williams. PhD Dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1990; 21: Polar Biology 24(8):620-627, 2001; 22: Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung 402:76-81, 2001 (increased reported depth from 250 meters in other sources to 675? meters)

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