Octocorallia, along with Hexacorallia, is one of the two extant classes of Anthozoa. It comprises over 3,000 species of marine and brackish animals consisting of colonial polyps with 8-fold symmetry, commonly referred to informally as "soft corals". It was previously known by the now unaccepted scientific names Alcyonacea and Gorgonacea, both deprecated c. 2022, and by the also deprecated name of Alcyonaria, in earlier times.

Its only two orders are Malacalcyonacea and Scleralcyonacea, which include corals such as those under the common names of blue corals, sea pens, and gorgonians (sea fans and sea whips). These animals have an internal skeleton secreted by their mesoglea, and polyps with typically eight tentacles and eight mesenteries. As is the case with all cnidarians, their complex life cycle includes a motile, planktonic phase (a larva called planula), and a later characteristic sessile phase.

Octocorals have existed at least since the Ordovician period, as shown by Maurits Lindström's findings in the 1970s. A 2023 work suggested that the Cambrian fossil Pywackia may represent a Cambrian octocoral, and molecular techniques have even pointed to a Precambrian origin for Octocorallia. For instance, a 2021 study built a time-calibrated phylogenetic tree that has placed the origin of Octocorallia in the Ediacaran (578 Mya).

...