Porites lobata

Porites lobata, known by the common name lobe coral, is a species of stony coral in the family Poritidae. It is found growing on coral reefs in tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Porites lobata

not specified · 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
PoritesPBDB
Diet
photosymbiotic, suspension feederPBDB, for Poritidae
Life habit
colonial, clonalPBDB, for Poritidae
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Poritidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
Environment
marinePBDB, for Poritidae

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 40 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 40 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 19 of 40 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.6–4.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–2.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.1–1.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.4–698 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence698 ka–0 Mya — about 32 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

40 occurrences of Porites lobata 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

40 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

2 formations

Era Beds — 8.35°S, 146.28°ETokelau — 17.22°S, 178.97°W

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The named rock units Porites lobata has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 38 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Porites lobata and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Porites lobata and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

195 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Porites lobata, 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

27 references

Each of the 40 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. 15 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 Porites lobata

Credit
not specified
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itPorites through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dana 1846