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Montastraeidae
| Description | Montastraea is a genus of colonial stony coral found in the Caribbean seas. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Montastraeidae and is also a monotypic itself, being represented by the single species, Montastraea cavernosa, commonly known as great star coral. It forms into massive boulders and sometimes develops into plates. Its polyps are the size of a human thumb and fully extend at night. From Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montastraeidae, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source Data |
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| Rank | family | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomy (GBIF,PBDB) | Life : Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Montastraeidae | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomic Status (GBIF) | accepted | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification (PBDB,GBIF) |
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| Scientific Name | Montastraeidae | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name Published In | Yabe, H. & Sugiyama, T. 1941. Recent reef-building corals from Japan and the South Sea Islands under the Japanese mandate II. The Science reports of the Tôhoku Imperial University, Sendai. 2nd Series (Geologie) Special Volume 2: 67-91, pls. 60-104. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opinions (PBDB) |
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| Status (PBDB) | extant | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxon Size (PBDB) | 53 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Extant Size (PBDB) | 8 (15%) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Recorded Appearance | 222 - 216 Ma Late/Upper Triassic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Environment | marine (based on Scleractinia) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Motility | stationary, attached (based on Scleractinia) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vision | blind (based on Anthozoa) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Diet | microcarnivore, photosymbiotic (based on Scleractinia) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reproduction | alternating, asexual, dispersal=water,planktonic (based on Scleractinia) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taphonomy | aragonite (based on Scleractinia) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary Reference (PBDB) | D. Huang, F. Benzoni, and H. Fukami, N. Knowlton, N. D. Smith, Ann F. Budd. 2014. Taxonomic classification of the reef coral families Merulinidae, Montastraeidae, and Diploastraeidae (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Scleractinia). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 171(2):277-355 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montastraeidae |
Fossil Distribution
Subtaxa
| Name | Status | Common Name(s) | Fossil Occurrences | Oldest | Youngest |
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| Montastraea genus | accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | 1,215 | 222 Ma Late/Upper Triassic | 0 Ma Extant | |
| Phyllocoenia genus | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
Synonymy List
| Year | Name and Author |
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| 1941 | Montastraeidae Yabe and Sugiyama |
| 2014 | Montastraeidae Huang et al. |
References
Data courtesy of: PBDB: The Paleobiology Database, Creative Commons CC-BY licenced. , GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, various licences, iDigBio, various licences, and EOL: The Encyclopedia of Life (Open Data Public Domain). Because fossils are made of minerals too!
Honeymoon Island, Dunedin, Pinellas County, Florida, USA