Stylophora

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Stylophora
Stylophora pistillata in the Zoo-Aquarium Berlin.

Stylophora pistillata in the Zoo- Aquarium Berlin .

Systematics
Trunk : Cnidarians (Cnidaria)
Class : Flower animals (anthozoa)
Subclass : Hexacorallia
Order : Hard corals (Scleractinia)
Family : Pocilloporidae
Genre : Stylophora
Scientific name
Stylophora
Schweigger , 1819
Stylophora sp. in a private saltwater aquarium

Stylophora is a common genus of hard corals (Scleractinia) that occurs in the Red Sea and in the tropical areas of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific east to Pitcairn . As the only significant genus of hard corals, it is more species-rich in the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean than in the central Indo-Pacific.

Fossil Stylophora is known from the Paleocene of the Pacific and the Eocene of the Caribbean as well as from the sediments of the former Tethys Sea .

features

Stylophora forms bush-shaped colonies and is of very variable growth form, depending on where it is located in the reef. Specimens that stand in shallow water and are exposed to currents from the tides and surf form thick branches and are usually brown, but can also be pink, purple, orange, pink or magenta in color. In deeper water, their branches are thinner and finger-like and more green or brown in color. In contrast to Seriatopora , the branches of the branches have a diameter of more than 10 mm. The branches are slightly flattened, the ends of the branches are always blunt and lighter in color. The coralites reach a diameter of 0.5 mm and are divided by six main septa. A ring of six additional septa may also be present.

Like most other hard corals, Stylophora lives in a symbiotic relationship with small algae ( zooxanthellae ), which provide the corals with nutrients.

species

literature

Web links

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