![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/MontastraeaAnnularis.jpg/640px-MontastraeaAnnularis.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Orbicella annularis
Species of coral / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orbicella annularis, commonly known as the Boulder star coral, is a species of coral that lives in the western Atlantic Ocean and is the most thoroughly studied and most abundant species of reef-building coral in the Caribbean to date.[3] It also has a comprehensive fossil record within the Caribbean.[4][5] This species complex has long been considered a generalist that exists at depths between 0 and 80 meters[6] that grew into varying colony shapes (heads, columns, plates) in response to differing light conditions.[7] Only recently with the help of molecular techniques has O. annularis been shown to be a complex of at least three separate species.[8][9][10] Those species are divided into O. annularis, O. faveolata, and O. franksi. This coral was originally described as Montastraea annularis.
Orbicella annularis | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Class: | Hexacorallia |
Order: | Scleractinia |
Family: | Merulinidae |
Genus: | Orbicella |
Species: | O. annularis |
Binomial name | |
Orbicella annularis (Ellis and Solander, 1786)[2] | |
Synonyms[2] | |
List
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![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Montastraea_annularis_Molasses_reef_FL.jpg/640px-Montastraea_annularis_Molasses_reef_FL.jpg)