Symphyllia
| Symphyllia | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Symphyllia |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Symphyllia | ||||||||||||
| Milne-Edwards & Haime , 1848 |
Symphyllia is a genus of hard corals found in the Red Sea and the tropical Indo-Pacific , north to Japan and east to the south-central Pacific. The species of this genus live on reef slopes with moderate currents and on fringing reefs protected from surf.
features
The growth form of its massive colonies is dome-shaped. They reach a diameter of up to 70 centimeters. The corallites are twisted like a meander (meandroid) and have a width of one to two centimeters. The walls between the coralites are also relatively wide. There is usually a groove-like depression on the top of the ramparts, which is often differently colored. Many small mouth openings in the valleys show that each corallite houses several polyps . The tentacles of the polyps are retracted during the day. The corals feed mainly with the help of their symbiotic zooxanthellae . The color varies and can be brown, gray, green, less often bluish or reddish and fluorescent. The upper zone or one side of the ramparts are often lighter in color.
Systematics
In the traditional stony coral system, Symphyllia is placed in the current polyphyletic family of Mussidae . In a more recent phylogenetic study, Symphyllia forms a common taxon with Lobophyllia , which in turn forms a new clade with Cynarina , Scolyma , Oxypora and Echinophyllia , for which a new family of hard corals will probably have to be established.
literature
- Julian jump: corals. Dähne Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-921684-87-0 .
- H. Erhardt, H. Moosleitner: Mergus sea water atlas. Volume 2, Mergus-Verlag, Melle 1997, ISBN 3-88244-112-7 .
- H. Erhardt, H. Baensch: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 5. Mergus-Verlag, Melle 2000, ISBN 3-88244-115-1 .
- 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