Summary 

Palythoa caesia is an colonial anemone of genus Palythoa belonging to family Zoanthidea under the suborder Brachycnemina of order Zoanthidea. They belong to the same subclass as "true coral", Hexacorallia under the class Anthozoa belonging to the phylum Cnidaria.

The following webpage aim to provide knowledge on the basic description, ecology, life history & behaviour, anatomy & physiology, evolution of this invertebrate collected from the Southern side of Heron Island in Australia.

All species under the genus of Palythoa can produce a deadly chemical call palytoxin and based on some of the previous experimental study and human death cases of palytoxin, it is certain that P.caesia contain palytoxin as well. This study aims to investigate the toxicity of palytoxin exist in P.caesia and the consequences of palytoxin poisoning. However, in this study no significant results were found and further study need to be done on P.caesia.

In addition to this investigation on the toxicity of P.caesia, a combination of dissections, histological sectioning and fluorescent response were recorded to provide detailed information about this mat anemone.