Montastraea cavernosa

Montastraea is a genus of colonial stony coral found in the Caribbean seas. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Montastraeidae and contains a single species, Montastraea cavernosa, known as great star coral. It forms into massive boulders and sometimes develops into plates. Its polyps are the size of a human thumb and fully extend at night.

Montastraea cavernosa

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
MontastraeaPBDB
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 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Oligocene — about 1 of 45 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 7 of 45 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 45 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 31 of 45 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 1 occurrence22–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.6–3.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 12 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 14 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences23.04 Mya129 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

45 occurrences of Montastraea cavernosa 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

45 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

7 formations

Moin — 9.97°N, 83.05°WMoin — 10.00°N, 83.03°WSiamaná — 12.05°N, 71.42°WSiamaná — 12.03°N, 71.42°WSiamaná — 11.83°N, 71.40°WQuebrada Chocolate — 9.98°N, 83.08°WIsla Colon — 9.42°N, 82.32°WSan Andres — 12.53°N, 81.70°WPort Morant — 17.88°N, 76.32°WAntigua — 17.07°N, 61.70°W

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The named rock units Montastraea cavernosa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Montastraea cavernosa and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Montastraea cavernosa and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

80 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Montastraea cavernosa, 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

8 references

Each of the 45 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 Montastraea cavernosa

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Montastraea cavernosa 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 itMontastraea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1767