Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Recently discovered Paleozoic corals with aragonitic skeletons and cyclic septal insertion – two features that characterize Scleractinia – have strengthened the hypothesis for an independent origin of the Scleractinia. [20] Whether the early scleractinian corals were zooxanthellate is an open question.
Scolymia, commonly called scoly coral, is a genus of large-polyp stony corals (Scleractinia). These animals are believed date back to the Miocene with three extant species present in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Scleractinia: Family: Pocilloporidae Gray, 1842 [1] Genera; ... The Pocilloporidae are closely related to the other coral families, Astrocoeniidae and Acroporidae. [1]
The staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) is a branching, stony coral, within the Order Scleractinia.It is characterized by thick, upright branches which can grow in excess of 2 meters (6.5 ft) in height and resemble the antlers of a stag, hence the name, Staghorn. [4]
Consequently, the term "gorgonian coral" is commonly handed to multiple species in the order Alcyonacea that produce a mineralized skeletal axis (or axial-like layer) composed of calcite and the proteinaceous material gorgonin only and corresponds to only one of several families within the formally accepted taxon Gorgoniidae (Scleractinia).
Oxypora glabra is a species of scleractinia coral, otherwise known as stony or hard coral, and part of the family Lobophylliidae, which is characteristic of robust coral colonies. [3] Corals are extremely plastic organisms in that their structures rely on their environment, making construction widely variable.
Montipora is a genus of Scleractinian corals in the phylum Cnidaria. Members of the genus Montipora may exhibit many different growth morphologies. With eighty five known species, [ 1 ] Montipora is the second most species rich coral genus after Acropora .
All scleractinian families considered here are zooxanthellates (contain photo-endo-symbiontic zooxanthellae). However, in 2022 there are more than 30 families determined under the Scleractinia (according to the World Register of Marine Species) order and 845 species of coral which are known to be reef-building. [2] [3]