Black jointed coralline - Crisia denticulata

Characteristics:

This fragile colony may reach a height of 3 cm. The branches usually alternate along the main branches. The internodes include 8 to 19 animals (zooids), 11 zooids is the most common number. The branches diverge at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, sometimes more. At the root of the branch (node) you may find a beige, pouch-like sexual zooid (gonozooid). Each branch is organized in solid segments, joined by flexible, black junctions, appearing brown spots in some of these images.

Habitat:

C. denticulata lives on a wide range of substrates, including algae, hydroids, rocks and shell, on any depth from the subtidal zone and down to 700 meters.

Distribution:

This species is registered in the Arctic, both sides of the North Atlantic Ocean, as far South as Mexico and Cuba, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific Ocean, along the coast of Japan.