Montastraea annularis
| Montastraea annularis | ||||||||||||
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Montastraea annularis |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Montastraea annularis | ||||||||||||
| ( Ellis & Solander , 1786) |
Montastraea annularis is a hard coral that occurs in the Caribbean , in the tropical western Atlantic from Florida to Colombia . It is one of the most important reef-building coralsin the Caribbean.
features
How their colonies grow depends on the current and the depth of the water. They grow massively in shallow water and form small domes, in deeper water, up to 80 meters, they grow flat and wide and can overlap in a shingle shape. The coralites are smaller than those of Montastraea cavernosa and conical in shape, the polyps , which reach a diameter of one centimeter, are nocturnal. During the day the coralites are thickly covered with inflated coral tissue, the tentacles are retracted. The spaces between the polyps are always clearly visible. The color varies and can be brown, reddish brown, gray, green or beige. The small pike slimy Acanthemblemaria maria and Emblemaria pandionis sometimes live in holes in the Montastraea annularis colonies.
Systematics
In the traditional stony coral system, Montastraea annularis is part of the Faviidae family , which is today considered to be extremely polyphyletic . In a recent phylogenetic study, it is the sister species of a large clade of genera from the families Faviidae, Merulinidae , Pectiniidae and Trachyphylliidae .
literature
- H. Erhardt, H. Moosleitner: Mergus sea water atlas. Volume 2, Mergus-Verlag, Melle 1997, ISBN 3-88244-112-7 .
- M. and W. Baumeister: Marine Fauna, Caribbean and Florida . Ulmer Verlag, ISBN 3-8001-4164-7 .
- H. Fukami, CA Chen, AF Budd, A. Collins, C. Wallace et al .: Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genes Suggest that Stony Corals Are Monophyletic but Most Families of Stony Corals Are Not (Order Scleractinia, Class Anthozoa, Phylum Cnidaria) . In: PLoS ONE. 3 (9), 2008, p. E3222. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0003222
Web links
- Montastraea annularis inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: R. Aronson, A. Bruckner, J. Moore, B. Precht, E. Weil, 2008. Retrieved December 10, 2013.