WoRMS taxon details
Merulina ampliata (Ellis & Solander, 1786)
AphiaID: 207407
AphiaID: 207407
| Classification: Biota > Animalia (Kingdom) > Cnidaria (Phylum) > Anthozoa (Class) > Hexacorallia (Subclass) > Scleractinia (Order) > Merulinidae (Family) > Merulina (Genus) |
| Status | accepted | |||||||||||||
| Record status | Edited by Database Management Team | |||||||||||||
| Rank | Species | |||||||||||||
| Parent | Merulina Ehrenberg, 1834 | |||||||||||||
| Sources |
basis of record: Veron, J.E.N. (1986). Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific. Angus & Robertson Publishers, London. [details] additional source: S.D.Cairns, B.W. Hoeksema & J. van der Land, update Oct. 2007, as a contribution to UNESCO-IOC Register of Marine Organisms (look up in IMIS) [details] | |||||||||||||
| Vernacular Names |
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| Environment | marine, | |||||||||||||
| Distribution | Chagos [details] East Africa [details] Indo-West Pacific [details] Kenya [details] Madagascar [details] Mozambique [details] Seychelles [details] | |||||||||||||
| Host of |
Alteuthellopsis corallina Humes, 1981 (parasitic: ectoparasitic)
Amardopsis merulinae Humes, 1974 (parasitic: ectoparasitic) Odontomolgus bulbalis Humes, 1991 (parasitic: ectoparasitic) Asteropontius trifilis Kim I.H., 2010 (parasitic: ectoparasitic) Odontomolgus bulbalis Humes, 1991 (symbiotic: unspecified type) | |||||||||||||
| Links | To Barcode of Life (1 barcode) To Biodiversity Heritage Library (44 publications) To Encyclopedia of Life To GenBank (9 nucleotides; 5 proteins) To IUCN Red List To USNM Invertebrate Zoology Cnidaria Collection To ITIS | |||||||||||||
| Notes |
Biology: zooxanthellate [details] Description: This has small colonies which commonly exceed 1 metre across and 0.5 metres tall; they are a mixture of foliaceous plates and contorted projections. These contortions resemble a mass of irregular branches in some colonies. Calices on the leafy parts of a corallum are rarely monocentric, but usually run in long meandroid series toward the edge of the leaf. Corallites on the twisted projections are commonly monocentric. Walls are low, rounded and very broad relative to the calice width. Merulina ampliata lives in mid to deep water depths on all reef slopes. It is usually pale yellow or brown, commonly tinted with pink. (Sheppard, 1998 <308>) Colonies are laminar and foliaceous or sub-arborescent with different growth forms characteristically occurring in the one colony. Valleys are short, straight and spread fan-wise, then divide. They radiate from the colony centre on flat surfaces but are highly contorted on branches. Flat surfaces often have concentric growth lines. Polyps are usually extended only at night. Colour: a variety of pale colours, usually pink or pale brown. Abundance: common. Occurs in a wide variety of reefal habitats but is most abundant in lagoons. (Veron, 1986 <57>) Radial, toothed ridges decorate the colonies which are variable in growth form ranging from fan-like plates to contorted, foliaceous branches within the same colony. Colour: varies from pale pink to light brown. Habitat: diverse. (Richmond, 1997) [details] Type locality: unrecorded (Veron, 1986). [details] | |||||||||||||
| LSID | urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:207407 | |||||||||||||
| Taxonomic Edit history |
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[Taxonomic tree] [Distribution map] [Google] [Google scholar] [Google images] | ||||||||||||||
| Citation: WoRMS (2013). Merulina ampliata (Ellis & Solander, 1786). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207407 on 2013-05-25 | ||||||||||||||
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