Schizopathidae Brook, 1889

Opresko, Dennis M. & Wagner, Daniel, 2020, New species of black corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Antipatharia) from deep- sea seamounts and ridges in the North Pacific, Zootaxa 4868 (4), pp. 543-559 : 550

Family Schizopathidae Brook, 1889

The family Schizopathidae is characterized by polyps with ten internal mesenteries (six primary and four secondary) and a transverse polyp diameter ranging from 2 mm to as much as 17 mm. Regardless of genus, colonies are usually pinnulate to some degree (see Opresko 2002). Genera are distinguished by characteristic patterns of pinnulation and subpinnulation (i.e., number of rows of primary or secondary pinnules, number of orders of subpinnules, restriction of subpinnules to only certain lower order pinnules).