Fossils reveal a high diversity of the staghorn coral genera Acropora and Isopora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) in the Neogene of Indonesia
Author
Santodomingo, Nadiezhda
Author
Wallace, Carden C.
Author
Johnson, Kenneth G.
text
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
2015
2015-11-18
175
4
677
763
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12295
journal article
10.1111/zoj.12295
0024-4082
5339562
ACROPORA HUMILIS
GROUP
Diagnosis
Species with sturdy colonies, corymbose or digitate, secondary branching rare. Branches conical or terete. Axial corallites dominate the diameter of the branch, walls composed of a dense reticulum with three synapticular rings. Radial corallites short thickened tubular with dimidiate calices, evenly sized or in two sizes; coenosteum throughout reticulate with laterally flattened irregular spinules, sometimes reticulo-costate.
Acropora humilis
group is a paraphyletic group in which two main clades were recognized by
Wallace (1999)
:
A. humilis
group 2 containing
A. humilis
and
A. gemmifera
, and the remaining paraphyletic species figured under the
A. humilis
group 1, including
A. monticulosa
,
A. retusa
,
A. digitifera
and
A. samoensis
. A similar grouping was later found by
Wolstenholme
et al
. (2003)
, through an integrated morphological and genetic analysis on specimens from
American Samoa
:
A. digitifera
and
A. monticulosa
grouped together, while
A. humilis
and
A. gemmifera
formed a distinctive clade. This group is characteristic of the shallow parts of reefs on Pacific and Indian Ocean reefs, but not so common in the Indonesian archipelago. Specimens in the fossil record of
Indonesia
include
A. monticulosa
,
A. samoensis
and
A. laurae
sp. nov.