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Montastraea
Sign in to saveMontastraea is a genus of colonial stony coral found in the Caribbean seas. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Montastraeidae and contains a single species, Montastraea cavernosa, 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.
Species
Greater Star Coral
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumCnidaria
- ClassAnthozoa
- OrderScleractinia
- FamilyMontastraeidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 320
- With media
- 4
- Family
- Montastraeidae
- Collections
- UF
- Recorded in
- United States, Jamaica
Wikidata facts
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- taxon rank
- genus
- Commons category
- Montastraea
- taxon name
- Montastraea
- topic's main category
- Category:Montastraea
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Description
- Bleaching
- References
Montastraea is a genus of colonial stony coral found in the Caribbean seas. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Montastraeidae and contains a single species, Montastraea cavernosa, 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.
==Description== thumb|left|Close-up with polyps extended Great star coral colonies form massive boulders and domes over 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter in waters of shallow and moderate depths. In deeper waters, this coral has been observed growing as a plate formation. It is found throughout most reef environments, and is the predominant coral at depths of 40–100 feet (12.2–30.5 m).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Montastraea” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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