The Dead Man’s Fingers is a soft coral that likes to live in clusters of groups to form colonies. The colonies form thick, fleshy-looking masses which take the shape of blunt fingers. The blunt-looking fingers have feathery tentacles giving the impression that the fingers are decaying in water and this is why this sea creature has its name ‘Dead Man’s Fingers’. It can be found all around the coasts of England in deeper waters where it attaches itself onto many hard surfaces such as rocks, shells, stones and even crabs.

The Dead Man’s Fingers is made up of small organisms called ‘polyps’. Each polyp has a mouth surrounded by eight tiny feathery-looking tentacles. Individual polyps can be seen in the colonies when they are submerged in water. The fleshy-looking masses around the polyps can be grey, pink, white, orange or yellow and they protect the polyps and the sensitive tentacles. The tentacles have stinging cells called ‘nematocysts’ which are used when this sea creature wants to feed.

The larvae of the Dead Man’s Fingers hatch out of the eggs directly into the water where they first become part of zooplankton. After around two days they settle on a chosen site to develop into polyps and as time goes by colonies are formed with the familiar shape of ‘Dead Man’s Fingers’.