Alcyoniina

{{Short description|Suborder of soft coral}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Folded Coral Flynn Reef.jpg | image_caption = ''Sarcophyton'' in Flynn Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef, near Cairns, Queensland, Australia. | taxon = Alcyoniina | authority = Lamouroux, 1816 }}

The suborder '''Alcyoniina''' (in some systems classified as the order '''Alcyonacea''' in the narrowest sense) is a former octocoralian taxon belonging to the broadly conceived order Alcyonacea.<ref name="Austr">{{cite web | last=Australia | first=Atlas of Living | title=Suborder: ALCYONIINA | website=Atlas of Living Australia | url=https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/5d61e03c-64a0-4f8c-a826-380b018be9f3#classification | access-date=2025-08-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=McFadden | first1=Catherine S. | last2=Ofwegen | first2=Leen P. VAN | title=Revisionary systematics of the endemic soft coral fauna (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea: Alcyoniina) of the Agulhas Bioregion, South Africa| journal=Zootaxa | volume=4363 | issue=4 | date=2017-12-12 | issn=1175-5334 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4363.4.1 | pages=451–488–451–488 | pmid=29245386 | url=http://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4363.4.1 | access-date=2022-05-28| url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://inverts.wallawalla.edu/Cnidaria/Class-Anthozoa/Subclass_Alcyonaria/Subclass_Alcyonaria_Key.html|title=Subclass Alcyonaria|website=inverts.wallawalla.edu}}</ref><ref name="McF"/>

Since a 2022 revision, almost all the families of former Alcyoniina belong to the order Malacalcyonacea, within which, however, they do not form a monophyletic taxon. Only the problematic (see below) Alcyoniinan family Parasphaerascleridae now belongs to the order Scleralcyonacea.<ref name="McF">McFadden, C.S.; van Ofwegen, L.P.; Quattrini, A.M. (2022). Revisionary systematics of Octocorallia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) guided by phylogenomics. Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists. 1(3), 8735, pp. 1-79</ref>

Members of Alcyoniina are found mainly in the Pacific and Indian oceans.{{citation needed|date=August 2025}}

==Families== The World Register of Marine Species listed the following families in the suborder Alcyoniina in October 2022:<ref>{{cite web | title=Alcyoniina | website=World Register of Marine Species | date=2025-08-06 | url=https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=411555 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003042358/https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=411555 | archive-date=2022-10-03 | url-status=live | access-date=2025-08-06}}</ref> *family Acrophytidae McFadden & van Ofwegen, 2017 *family Alcyoniidae Lamouroux, 1812 *family Aquaumbridae Breedy, van Ofwegen & Vargas, 2012 *family Corymbophytidae McFadden & van Ofwegen, 2017 *family Leptophytidae McFadden & van Ofwegen, 2017 *family Nephtheidae Gray, 1862 *family Nidaliidae Gray, 1869 *family Paralcyoniidae Gray, 1869 *family Xeniidae Ehrenberg, 1828

The family Parasphaerascleridae was sometimes also included in the suborder.<ref name="McF"/><ref name="Austr"/> Alternatively, it was classified as incertae sedis within Alcyonacea.<ref>{{cite web | title=Parasphaerascleridae McFadden & van Ofwegen, 2013 | website=World Register of Marine Species | date=2025-08-06 | url=https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=743776 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001124954/https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=743776 | archive-date=2022-10-01 | url-status=live | access-date=2025-08-06}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Octocorallia Category:Cnidarians of the Indian Ocean Category:Cnidarians of the Pacific Ocean