Coelastrea aspera

Coelastrea aspera is a species of stony coral in the family Merulinidae. It is a colonial species native to the Indo-Pacific region where it occurs in shallow water. It was first described by the American zoologist Addison Emery Verrill in 1866 as Goniastrea aspera but it has since been determined that it should be in a different genus and its scientific name has been changed to Coelastrea aspera. This is a common species throughout much of its wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".

Coelastrea aspera

Zoe Richards et al · CC BY 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
CoelastreaPBDB
Diet
microcarnivore, photosymbioticPBDB, for Scleractinia
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunal, colonial, clonalPBDB, for Scleractinia
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Scleractinia
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
Environment
marinePBDB, for Scleractinia

Time the record covers

At least 117 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 129 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 19 occurrencesPleistocene — about 17 of 19 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 2 of 19 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 12 occurrences129 ka – 11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

19 occurrences of Coelastrea aspera 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

19 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

3 formations

Samadai — 25.15°N, 34.85°EFarasan — 16.75°N, 42.00°EHateruma — 24.04°N, 123.79°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Coelastrea aspera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Coelastrea aspera and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Coelastrea aspera and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

150 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Coelastrea aspera, 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

9 references

Each of the 19 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 Coelastrea aspera

Credit
Zoe Richards et al
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Coelastrea aspera 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 itCoelastrea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Verrill 1866)