Coralliidae, also known as precious corals, is a taxonomic family of soft corals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria of the family Scleraxonia. These sessile corals are one of the most dominant members of hard-bottomed benthic environments such as seamounts, canyons and continental shelves. From this coral family results 69 descendants in which each species plays a key role in forming habitats for a variety of marine species. Due to their unique trait of possessing a red calcium carbonate skeleton, these corals can be harvested in order to create handcrafted amulets, jewelry and other valuable artifacts, giving rise to its reputed name of "precious corals". Correspondingly, members of this family are vulnerable to the negative impacts of overharvestation imposed by mass coral trade. Description Members of this family Coralliidae are also considered "soft corals" which are sedentary, colonial polypoids. Animals of this class have a simple cup shaped body that consists of two layers of cells, sloping peripheral platforms and wide axial pits. Each of these members have 8 unpaired, pinnate and 8 mesenteries utilized for filter feeding and defense. All species have numerous calcareous skeletal elements called sclerites that can be found on the surface ranging from 3 mm to 5 mm, diverging in many directions. The endoskeleton is composed of tiny stick-like calcium carbonate rods that fuse together to form a rigid structure which may be colored red, pink, or white. Coralliidae exhibit two different distributions within a colony and their spacing across the colony surface. Corals can be either roughly equal in size and evenly distributed across the colony surface, or unevenly distributed and vary in size. However, the general trend observed is one of a proportionally positive relationship between coral colony age and polyp and height size. This family can be further classified, based upon their polyps distribution, into three genera based : Corallium, Hemicorallium, and Paracorallium: Distribution Species belonging to this family of Coralliidae typically inhabit tropical, subtropical and temperate oceans regions within oceans around the world. Unlike corals which can be found in shallow waters, these precious corals can be found in greater depths of . Most species can be found in large numbers around the west and central Pacific, including the surrounding seas of New Caledonia, Taiwan, Japan and the Hawaiian Archipelago. Species diversity of this family of corals is decreased in the Atlantic, Indian, and eastern Pacific oceans. However, corals of the Hemicorallium