Acropora cervicornis

The staghorn coral is a branching, stony coral, within the Order Scleractinia. It is characterized by thick, upright branches which can grow in excess of 2 meters (6.5 ft) in height and resemble the antlers of a stag, hence the name, Staghorn. It grows within various areas of a reef but is most commonly found within shallow fore and back reefs, as well as patch reefs, where water depths rarely exceed 20 meters (65 ft). Staghorn corals can exhibit very fast growth, adding up to 5 cm in new skeleton for every 1 cm of existing skeleton each year, making them one of the fastest growing fringe coral species in the Western Atlantic. Due to this fast growth, Acropora cervicornis, serve as one of the most important reef building corals, functioning as marine nurseries for juvenile fish, buffer zones for erosion and storms, and center points of biodiversity in the Western Atlantic.

Acropora cervicornis

Albert Kok at Dutch Wikipedia ( Original text: albert kok ) · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AcroporaPBDB
Diet
photosymbiotic, suspension feederPBDB, for Acroporidae
Life habit
colonial, clonalPBDB, for Acroporidae
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Scleractinia
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
Environment
marinePBDB, for Scleractinia

Time the record covers

At least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 6 of 277 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 42 of 277 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 212 of 277 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 17 of 277 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 7 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 7 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 7 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 14 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 14 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 157 occurrences5.333 Mya11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

277 occurrences of Acropora cervicornis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

277 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

23 formations

Seroe Domi — 12.10°N, 68.90°WSeroe Domi — 12.15°N, 69.00°WHato — 12.28°N, 69.07°WHato — 12.37°N, 69.10°WHato — 12.17°N, 68.88°WHato — 12.20°N, 69.08°WHato — 12.13°N, 68.98°WSan Luis — 12.50°N, 81.72°WSan Luis — 12.57°N, 81.72°WIronshore — 19.28°N, 81.38°WIronshore — 19.35°N, 81.08°WIronshore — 19.37°N, 81.40°WIronshore — 19.28°N, 81.15°WQuebrada Chocolate — 9.98°N, 83.08°WIsla Colon — 9.42°N, 82.32°WIsla Colon — 9.35°N, 82.17°WMoin — 9.97°N, 83.05°WMoin — 10.00°N, 83.03°WUrraca — 9.43°N, 82.32°WUrraca — 9.45°N, 82.30°WOld Bank — 9.32°N, 82.11°WPort Morant — 17.88°N, 76.32°WKey Largo Limestone — 25.13°N, 80.38°WKey Largo Limestone — 24.93°N, 80.58°WManchioneal — 18.19°N, 76.43°WFalmouth — 18.50°N, 77.33°WAmbergris Cay Limestone — 18.12°N, 87.82°WAmbergris Cay Limestone — 18.00°N, 87.90°WOld Pera — 17.87°N, 76.28°WBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WHope Gate — 18.47°N, 77.40°WCercado — 19.53°N, 71.18°WBlanquilla — 11.85°N, 64.62°WKey Largo Limestone/Miami Oolite — 24.67°N, 81.57°WGrotto Beach — 24.03°N, 74.52°WTamiami — 26.13°N, 81.48°WSeroe Domi — 12.23°N, 68.38°W

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The named rock units Acropora cervicornis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 128 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acropora cervicornis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Acropora cervicornis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

272 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 89 sites for Acropora cervicornis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

47 references

Each of the 277 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 35 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Acropora cervicornis

Credit
Albert Kok at Dutch Wikipedia ( Original text: albert kok )
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAcropora through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Lamarck 1816)