Specimen image via iDigBio
Orbicella
Sign in to saveOrbicella is a genus of stony corals in the Merulinidae family. The Orbicella species complex comprises three sister species, namely Orbicella faveolata, Orbicella annularis and Orbicella franksi, all of which are shallow-water, zooxanthellate species and are native to the tropical western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumCnidaria
- ClassAnthozoa
- OrderScleractinia
- FamilyMerulinidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 208
- With media
- 3
- Family
- Merulinidae
- Collections
- NHMUK, UF, USNM
- Recorded in
- Venezuela, United States, Netherlands Antilles, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Haiti
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Merulinidae
- Image
- Orbicella franksi (Montastraea franksi) 1.jpg
Show 3 more facts
- taxon name
- Orbicella
- taxon rank
- genus
- Commons category
- Orbicella
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Characteristics
- Skeleton properties
- Speciation and reproductive barriers
- Species
- References
Orbicella is a genus of stony corals in the Merulinidae family. The Orbicella species complex comprises three sister species, namely Orbicella faveolata, Orbicella annularis and Orbicella franksi, all of which are shallow-water, zooxanthellate species and are native to the tropical western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
These corals are ubiquitous and major reef-builders in the Caribbean. Their similar colony morphologies misled scientists to historically lump them into a single species, Montastraea annularis, which included three morphotypes “bumpy”, “columnar” and “massive”. These growth forms were believed to arise as a response to abiotic factors (e.g., depth, light availability). This taxonomic classification was challenged by further ecological, reproductive, genetic, and morphologic evidence, which led to the re-description of three separate species, Montastraea faveolata (massive), M. annularis (columnar) and M. franksi (bumpy).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Orbicella” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.