- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Cnidaria
- Class: Anthozoa
- Subclass: Hexacorallia
- Order: Scleractinia
- Family: Caryophylliidae
- Scientific name: Lophelia pertusa
- Norwegian: glasskorall
Characteristics:
It has white or orange polyps with as many as 60 tentacles. Each polyp produces calcium carbonate to build a hard skeleton. Lophelia pertusa is a reef building, deep water coral. Surveys by the Norwegian oil industry have revealed reefs 5 km long, 200 meters wide and 35 meters high. Unfortunately, these reefs are beyond reach of scuba divers.
Habitat:
Lophelia pertusa is a deep sea species that seems to prefer current exposed locations, usually at depths ranging from 150 to 2000 meters. In the Trondheim Fjord, and probably in other Norwegian fjords as well, there are Lophelia-locations at approximately 40 meters.
Distribution:
It is widespread in the Atlantic Ocean, from northern Europe to West Africa and North and South America.