Madrepora
Linne, 1758, p. 793
Type Species
M. oculata Linnaeus, 1758, p. 798, no fig.; Subsequent Designation Verrill, 1901, p. 110
Type Specimen: Holotype; ; Lost; Unknown
Type Locality: Recent: Mediterranean
Type species described by Cairns (1979) and Zibrowius (1980).
Classification
Synonyms
Diagnosis
Corallum colonial, sympodial in growth form; coenosteum dense, no costae; axial corallites absent; corallites filled internally with stereome; P2 sometimes present; columella spongy of absent.
Remarks
Madrepora was the genus name on which the ordinal name Madreporaria (first suggested by Milne Edwards, 1857) was based. Van der Land (2003) graphed the chronological replacement of the popular use of the name Madreporaria with Scleractinia (first proposed by Bourne, 1900), the change over occurring in about 1965. This is one of the approximately dozen species of framework building deep-water corals, and also one of about a dozen species with a cosmopolitan distribution. Five Recent species (Cairns et al., 1999) and about 30 nominal fossil species (Filkorn, 1994).
This page has been in preparation since 08-Oct-2008 15:21
This version was contributed by Stephen D. Cairns on 20-Nov-2008 20:56.
Page authors are: Stephen D. Cairns Jarek Stolarski. Please contact the editor if you would like to contribute to the diagnosis of this taxon.
The editor is: Stephen D. Cairns
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