A deep-sea anemone observed on sandy and muddy seafloors during a Gulf of Alaska survey.
A ring of tentacles sits at the end of a stalk.
Actinoscyphia aurelia can stand upright on sediment without being firmly attached, and contracts into a flattened disc-like form. Northwest African collections included both concentrations of small individuals and groups dominated by larger animals.
A 1979 study compared Discovery and Meteor collections with seabed photographs. A sample from 1942–1949 metres on 26 November 1976 contained 269 specimens, nearly half weighing less than one gram. Small individuals were virtually absent from four other large samples. At that station, 22 of 39 analysable photographs contained aurelia, with up to three per frame. The authors tentatively linked differing size structures to recolonisation after sediment disturbance.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In the Gulf of Alaska, NOAA documented aurelia on soft sediment during its 2022 camera survey. The associated Alaska coral and sponge research supports the provision of scientific information for conserving and managing deep-sea ecosystems and informing the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.