Alveopora spongiosa
Alveopora spongiosa is a species of stony coral that is found in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the southwest and northern Indian Ocean, the central Indo-Pacific, Australia, Southeast Asia Japan, the East China Sea and the oceanic west and central Pacific Ocean. It can be found on protected upper coral reef slopes, generally from depth of 9–20 m (30–66 ft), but can grow at depths of up to 50 m (160 ft). It is moderately susceptible to coral bleaching, and is harvested for the aquarium trade.

Jesse Hofmann-Smith · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
- AlveoporaPBDB
- 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 15 million years on record.
The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 11.7 ka.
3 occurrences of Alveopora spongiosa 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
3 occurrences- Miocene33%
- Pleistocene67%
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
2 formations
- Dayrell Formation · Herald Group1
- Tokelau Formation1
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The named rock units Alveopora spongiosa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Alveopora spongiosa and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Alveopora spongiosa and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
The Paleobiology Database records no fossil sites for Alveopora spongiosa, so there is nothing to compare it with.
Entered from
3 references- Field work Vanuatu1
- Evolutionary dynamics of Indo-Pacific reef corals throughout the Neogene1
- Stratigraphy and paleontology of Pleistocene submarine volcanic-sedimentary sequences at the northern Kermadec Islands1
Each of the 3 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. 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 Alveopora spongiosa
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Jesse Hofmann-Smith
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Alveopora spongiosa was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itAlveopora through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dana 1846