Pavona decussata
Pavona decussata, sometimes known as leaf coral, is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Agariciidae. It is found in shallow water in various reef habitats, particularly on gently sloping surfaces, in tropical parts of the western and central Indo-Pacific region.

Benzoni, F. · CC BY 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
- PavonaPBDB
- 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 2.5 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.
7 occurrences of Pavona decussata on record. 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
7 occurrences- Pliocene14%
- Pleistocene29%
- Holocene57%
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
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Pavona decussata 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.
Found in the same rock
94 taxa- Pocillopora damicornis3 sites
- Cyphastrea serailia2 sites
- Galaxea fascicularis2 sites
- Hydnophora exesa2 sites
- Leptastrea purpurea2 sites
- Lobophyllia hemprichii2 sites
- Pavona varians2 sites
- Porites nigrescens2 sites
- Psammocora columna2 sites
- Seriatopora hystrix2 sites
- Acanthastrea echinata1 site
- Acanthastrea hemprichii1 site
- Acanthastrea lordhowensis1 site
- Acropora aspera1 site
- Acropora longicyathus1 site
- Acropora microphthalma1 site
- Acropora millepora1 site
- Acropora muricata1 site
- Acropora pharaonis1 site
- Acropora robusta1 site
- Acropora tumida1 site
- Acropora valida1 site
- Alveopora japonica1 site
- Antillophyllia constricta1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Pavona decussata, 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
6 references- Recurrent patterns of coral community and sediment facies development through successive phases of Holocene inner-shelf reef growth and decline2
- Miocene reef-coral diversity of Indonesia: unlocking the murky origins of the Coral Triangle1
- Response of reef coral communities to sea-level rise: a Holocene model from Mauritius (western Indian Ocean)1
- Environmental control of Holocene changes to the world's most northern hermatypic coral outcrop1
- Evidence of high sea level during isotope stage 5c in Queensland, Australia1
- Die Anthozoenfauna des Jungtertiärs von Borneo [Anthozoa from the Upper Tertiary of Borneo]1
Each of the 7 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 Pavona decussata
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Benzoni, F.
- Licence
- CC BY 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Pavona decussata was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itPavona through timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dana 1846