📸 PhotoPhoto: Claudia RATTI · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Ellisella ceratophyta
Ellisella ceratophyta (Ellisella ceratophyta · Ellisella ceratophyta)
Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List yet.
🇰🇷 Class II endangered wildlife (Korea)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its colony height of about 11.5 cm is just over half the short side of an A4 sheet of paper (21 cm).
- 💡 The National Institute of Ecology explains that its growth rate is so slow that recovery is difficult once damaged, making it important not to touch it while diving.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
Ellisella ceratophyta is a bright red fan-shaped coral attached to bedrock at depths of 20–40 m in the sea off Jeju, designated as an Endangered Wildlife Class II species in Korea.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
The colony is fan-shaped and about 11.5 cm high, bright crimson overall with white tentacles and axial skeleton, red polyps, and thin, long branches that divide twice.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
The colony grows very slowly, forms communities, and captures small plankton using venomous nematocysts.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
As an Endangered Wildlife Class II species, it is distributed in the waters off Jeju Island in Korea, and rising water temperatures, marine pollution, and careless underwater leisure activities are threat factors.
📚 Sources & References
- • 멸종위기 야생생물 Ⅱ급 — 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000213874 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000213874
- • IUCN Red List: not evaluated (NE) — cross-checked with the Wikidata conservation-status entry
- • Korean protection status: Class II endangered wildlife (Korea)
- • marinespecies.org — aphia.php
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000213874 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000213874
- • wikidata.org — Q2346798
- • nie.re.kr — view.do
- • nie.re.kr — list.do
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Ctenocella)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.