Acropora muricata

Acropora muricata, commonly called staghorn coral, is a species of acroporid coral found in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Australia, central Indo-Pacific, Japan, Southeast Asia, the East China Sea and the oceanic central and western Pacific Ocean. It is found in tropical shallow reefs, slopes of reefs, and in lagoons, from depths of 5 to 30 m. It was described by Dana in 1846.

Acropora muricata

Philippe Bourjon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 27 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 27 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 19 of 27 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 6 of 27 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 22 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

27 occurrences of Acropora muricata 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

27 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

4 formations

Aldabra Limestone — 9.42°S, 46.45°EEra Beds — 8.35°S, 146.28°EMerizo — 13.23°N, 144.72°EWhite Wall — 17.47°N, 62.96°W

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The named rock units Acropora muricata has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acropora muricata and its relatives

Pleistocene

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

Found in the same rock

196 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Acropora muricata, 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

15 references

Each of the 27 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. 3 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 content1

Picture of Acropora muricata

Credit
Philippe Bourjon
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acropora muricata was found in Sketchfab.

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. (Linnaeus 1758)