Orbicella annularis | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Class: | Hexacorallia |
Order: | Scleractinia |
Family: | Merulinidae |
Genus: | Orbicella |
Species: | O. annularis
|
Binomial name | |
Orbicella annularis (Ellis and Solander, 1786)
[2]
| |
Synonyms [2] | |
List
|
Orbicella annularis, commonly known as the Boulder star coral, is a species of coral that lives in the western Atlantic Ocean and is the most thoroughly studied and most abundant species of reef-building coral in the Caribbean to date. [3] It also has a comprehensive fossil record within the Caribbean. [4] [5] This species complex has long been considered a generalist that exists at depths between 0 and 80 meters [6] that grew into varying colony shapes (heads, columns, plates) in response to differing light conditions. [7] Only recently with the help of molecular techniques has O. annularis been shown to be a complex of at least three separate species. [8] [9] [10] Those species are divided into O. annularis, O. faveolata, and O. franksi. This coral was originally described as Montastraea annularis.
Orbicella annularis | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Class: | Hexacorallia |
Order: | Scleractinia |
Family: | Merulinidae |
Genus: | Orbicella |
Species: | O. annularis
|
Binomial name | |
Orbicella annularis (Ellis and Solander, 1786)
[2]
| |
Synonyms [2] | |
List
|
Orbicella annularis, commonly known as the Boulder star coral, is a species of coral that lives in the western Atlantic Ocean and is the most thoroughly studied and most abundant species of reef-building coral in the Caribbean to date. [3] It also has a comprehensive fossil record within the Caribbean. [4] [5] This species complex has long been considered a generalist that exists at depths between 0 and 80 meters [6] that grew into varying colony shapes (heads, columns, plates) in response to differing light conditions. [7] Only recently with the help of molecular techniques has O. annularis been shown to be a complex of at least three separate species. [8] [9] [10] Those species are divided into O. annularis, O. faveolata, and O. franksi. This coral was originally described as Montastraea annularis.