Isophyllia sinuosa

Isophyllia sinuosa, the sinuous cactus coral, is a species of stony coral in the family Mussidae. It is found in shallow water in the tropical western Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea.

Isophyllia sinuosa

Uncredited · Copyrighted free use · 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
IsophylliaPBDB
Diet
photosymbiotic, suspension feederPBDB, for Faviina
Life habit
colonial, clonalPBDB, for Faviina
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Faviina
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
Environment
marinePBDB, for Scleractinia

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 1 of 16 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 15 of 16 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 16 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 13 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

16 occurrences of Isophyllia sinuosa 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

16 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

5 formations

Ironshore — 19.28°N, 81.33°WIronshore — 19.35°N, 81.37°WIronshore — 19.27°N, 81.38°WIsla Colon — 9.41°N, 82.31°WTamiami — 26.14°N, 81.77°WKey Largo Limestone/Miami Oolite — 24.67°N, 81.57°WWhite Wall — 17.47°N, 62.96°W

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The named rock units Isophyllia sinuosa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Isophyllia sinuosa and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Isophyllia sinuosa and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

23 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Isophyllia sinuosa, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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 16 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 Isophyllia sinuosa

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Copyrighted free use
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Isophyllia sinuosa 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 itIsophyllia through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Ellis and Solander 1786)