Diploastrea heliopora

Diploastrea heliopora, commonly known as diploastrea brain coral or honeycomb coral among other vernacular names, is a species of hard coral in the family Diploastreidae. It is the only extant species in its genus. This species can form massive dome-shaped colonies of great size.

Diploastrea heliopora

Nhobgood Nick Hobgood · 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
DiploastreaPBDB
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 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 49 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 9 of 49 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 15 of 49 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 19 of 49 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 20 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

49 occurrences of Diploastrea heliopora 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

49 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

11 formations

Nias — 1.12°N, 97.62°ENias — 1.38°N, 97.37°EYalam — 4.28°S, 151.83°EYalam — 4.47°S, 151.88°EUpper Kalibeng — 7.25°S, 110.67°EUpper Kalibeng — 8.00°S, 114.00°ETokelau — 17.22°S, 178.97°WTokelau — 17.32°S, 178.99°WRyukyu Limestone — 24.50°N, 124.26°EEra Beds — 8.35°S, 146.28°ESondé — 8.00°S, 114.00°EMiyako-jima — 24.80°N, 125.28°EMerizo — 13.23°N, 144.72°ESalayar — 6.08°S, 120.48°EFarasan — 16.86°N, 41.81°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Diploastrea heliopora has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diploastrea heliopora and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Diploastrea heliopora and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

287 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Diploastrea heliopora, 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

29 references

Each of the 49 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. 17 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 Diploastrea heliopora

Credit
Nhobgood Nick Hobgood
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itDiploastrea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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