BIO 475 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Orbicella, Porites, Fire Coral
Stony Coral
● Soft polyps above a stony skeleton. Most reef-building corals form colonies of
interconnected polyps
● The shapes, sizes and color of the polyps and colonies are used to help identify corals.
●
Coral Skeleton
● Separated Polyp walls (round)
● Connected polyp walls (long ridges and valleys)
● Separated + connected polyp walls
What to look for
●Colony shape
○ Massive, crust, plate, branching
●Colony size range
○ Small to big
●Colony surface
○ Bumpy, smooth, ridged
●Polyp size
○ Small to big
●Polyp shape
○ Round, elliptical, irregular, y-shaped
●Polyp color
○ Brown, tan, yellow, olive, green, red
●Septal shape
○ Fat, thin, smooth, toothed
Coding Corals in AGRRA Surveys
● ORBI=Orbicella
○ Coral code for the genus is the first 4 leters of its genus name of unknown
species
● OFAV=Orbicella faveolata
○ Small round polpys with exsert walls in mounds of ‘skirted’ edges or think plates
○ Greens browns, grey, may flouresce
○ Can grow very tall and/or wide
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Orbicella annularia
● Small, round, exert polyps are alive at the tops of columns
● Thick plates at colony sides or bases under low light conditions
● Forms cone formations, divided into columns
● Light brown/ yellow brown
●
Orbicella Franksi (Fran
● Irregular bumps with large, exsert polyps that are pale or lack zooxanthellae
● Irregular mounds, crusts or thick plates
●Franksi is only type in Bermuda; O. franksi OFRA
Montastraea cavernosa MCAV (“cavities”)
● Large round exsert polyps
● brown , yellow-brown, green or grey
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● Great star coral
Dichocoenia Stokesi DSTO
● Very exsert, round, elliptical, elongate, or y shaped polyps
● cream , yellow, brown
● Polyp stick out alot
Favia fragum
● Somewhat exsert, round-elongated polyps
● Septa have small teeth
● Don't stick out as much as stokesi
● “golfball coral”
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Document Summary
Most reef-building corals form colonies of interconnected polyps. The shapes, sizes and color of the polyps and colonies are used to help identify corals. Connected polyp walls (long ridges and valleys) Coral code for the genus is the first 4 leters of its genus name of unknown species. Small round polpys with exsert walls in mounds of skirted" edges or think plates. Small, round, exert polyps are alive at the tops of columns. Thick plates at colony sides or bases under low light conditions. Irregular bumps with large, exsert polyps that are pale or lack zooxanthellae. Franksi is only type in bermuda; o. franksi ofra. Very exsert, round, elliptical, elongate, or y shaped polyps. Don"t stick out as much as stokesi. Small sunken polyps with very thin septa. Some pale or bleached (purple) colonies are fluorescent. Inside the polyp, you can see the septa radiating star inside the polyp . Blushing coral ; blushes when tissue contracts.
