Montiapora What??

[Alf]

got this at MACNA XIV last sept was told is was Montiapora something anybody have an idea?? I have never seen this anywhere else.
Thanks

[Craig Manoukian]

Robert,

I know this doesn't help much, but is very interesting reading and a quote from Eric Borneman. ID is not very easy as you know.

The Confusion Begins.

Although there are many species which comprise the genus, Montipora is found in an unsettling array of colonial formations. To one unfamiliar with skeletal anatomy of Scleractinians, the presentation of so many shapes is bewildering. Montipora forms branching (digitate), encrusting, plate-like (laminar), massive, convoluted (foliaceous), and even pillar-like (columnar) formations. It is thus found in almost all of the common colony formations that exist in the wild. To further complicate the array, Montipora shows a characteristic common to many corals, but to an even greater degree. That is, it changes its colonial form dependent on water conditions, lighting, and depth. In shallow waters, Montipora may be branching. The same coral, if left to grow in deeper waters may begin to adopt a laminar or massive shape. Heavy wave action causes branched species to become more compact. Differing light may result in coloration changes. Classification can now be encumbered by a large genus with many species, an ability to thrive in many varied areas on and near the reef itself, and a propensity to morphological change dependent on existent conditions. It couldn't be more confusing, could it?

It Gets A Lot More Confusing.



There is something disconcerting when the world's foremost authority on corals admits that even he can't identify many corals at a species or subspecies level with any degree of certainty. When Dr. Charles Veron spoke at this year's MACNA, he told a tale of larvae that drift with prevailing currents to settle many miles away from their parent colonies. Given the millions of years that corals have had to proliferate, this alone is daunting enough. But he also showed how some members of the same species, separated by thousands of years of evolution, could not produce viable colonies when cross fertilized, and yet some members of different species could easily cross fertilize and hybridize, forming a new subspecies. He went on to explain that various skeletal characteristics could be found within the same colony. In his book, Corals in Space and Time, Veron continues to describe how Montipora can even show tissue fusion between genotypes. What this means is that two types of living tissue can exist on the same coral! With all these variables introduced, taxonomy of any coral, much less a Montipora, must be extraordinarily difficult. Now what?

[Alf]

Well It was worth a shot.
Yea Craig I was aware but thought I might see if anyone had come across this coral before. I have never seen another like it.

[Playa]

Digitata berrucosa?

:-)