MXieuicanJAuscum - American Museum of Natural History

14 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES
NO. 1965
The great majority of specimens were taken from gravel in one rock
dredging (V4-28) and were dead and worn. Those specimens that were
taken alive invariably showed regeneration or "parricidal budding."
This is interpreted here as a response to fluctuations between satisfactory
and unsatisfactory environmental conditions. Several individuals
possessed three series of superimposed calices, in each instance the
younger one being smaller in diameter than the older. That this is
not a case of transverse fission is indicated by the presence of shreds
of epitheca deposited over the septa of the older calice as the edge
FIG. 5. Large, branching, enallopsammid-like coral on a rocky ledge. Note
overhanging material. Tl-1-3 photograph, about 2500 meters, near Great
Meteor Seamount, latitude 310 36' N., longitude. 290 01' W.
zone of the polyp was retracted. In every case the new growth of the
corallite was from the central portion of the calice, presumably developing
from the remnants of a highly retracted polyp. In no instance
was there a question of the young corallite's being partially or wholly
free from the older, as there is a continuity of growth. Unfortunately,
the causes of this type of regeneration cannot even be speculated upon.
Of the eight specimens from V4-30, seven were alive but showed no
regeneration, nor did the single dead specimen. In contrast, of the 56
specimens of P. defilippi in haul V4-28, 37 were dead, 19 alive, and 15