Porites porites porites (clubbed finger coral) (San Salvador Island, Bahamas) 5 (16066417536)

Description:

Description: Porites porites porites (Pallas, 1766) - clubbed finger coral on patch reef. Stony corals have a patchy distribution in the shallow marine waters surrounding San Salvador Island. They occur as isolated individual colonies, in patch reefs, fringing reefs, and barrier reefs. Stony corals are scleractinian anthozoan cnidarians (there are also non-scleractinian stony corals in the fossil record, such as tabulates and rugosans). They consist of individuals or colonies of gelatinous polyps that secrete hard skeletons of aragonite (CaCO3). Most scleractinian corals live in warm, tropical to subtropical, photic zone environments (the shallow portions of the world’s oceans where sunlight penetrates). Microbes (Symbiodinium - Protista, Dinoflagellata/Pyrrhophyta) called zooxanthellae live in their tissues and need to be in sunlight to make their own food (photosynthesis), which is shared with the host coral animal. Scleractinian corals have stinging cells (nematocysts) in their tentacles that paralyze prey. The clubbed finger coral (see above photo) makes a skeleton of relatively short, stout branches. The living tissues surrounding the skeleton are typically grayish in color. The blue-and-black fish are Chromis cyanea (blue chromis). Classification: Animalia, Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Scleractinia, Poritidae Locality: Snapshot Reef, Fernandez Bay, offshore western San Salvador Island, eastern Bahamas. Date: 23 June 2010, 09:46. Source: Porites porites porites (clubbed finger coral) (San Salvador Island, Bahamas) 5. Author: James St. John.