Order of Hexacorallia which produce a massive stony skeleton
Stony corals
Temporal range: Middle Triassic - Recent [1]
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Scleractinian corals, illustration by Ernst Haeckel, 1904
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[3]
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Cnidaria
Class:
Hexacorallia
Order:
Scleractinia Bourne, 1900 [2]
Families
About 35, see text.
Synonyms
Madreporaria
Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mouth is fringed with tentacles. Although some species are solitary, most are colonial. The founding polyp settles and starts to secrete calcium carbonate to protect its soft body. Solitary corals can be as much as 25 cm (10 in) across but in colonial species the polyps are usually only a few millimetres in diameter. These polyps reproduce asexually by budding, but remain attached to each other, forming a multi-polyp colony of clones with a common skeleton, which may be up to several metres in diameter or height according to species.
The shape and appearance of each coral colony depends not only on the species, but also on its location, depth, the amount of water movement and other factors. Many shallow-water corals contain symbiont unicellular organisms known as zooxanthellae within their tissues. These give their colour to the coral which thus may vary in hue depending on what species of symbiont it contains. Stony corals are closely related to sea anemones, and like them are armed with stinging cells known as cnidocytes. Corals reproduce both sexually and asexually. Most species release gametes into the sea where fertilisation takes place, and the planula larvae drift as part of the plankton, but a few species brood their eggs. Asexual reproduction is mostly by fragmentation, when part of a colony becomes detached and reattaches elsewhere.
Stony corals occur in all the world's oceans. Much of the framework of modern coral reefs is formed by scleractinians. Reef-building or hermatypic corals are mostly colonial; most of these are zooxanthellate and are found in the shallow waters into which sunlight penetrates. Other corals that do not form reefs may be solitary or colonial; some of these occur at abyssal depths where no light reaches.
Stony corals first appeared in the Middle Triassic, but their relationship to the tabulate and rugose corals of the Paleozoic is currently unresolved. In modern times stony corals numbers are expected to decline due to the effects of global warming and ocean acidification.[4]
^Stanley, G. D. The evolution of modern corals and their early history. Earth-Science Rev. 60, 195–225 (2003).
^Hoeksema, Bert (2015). "Scleractinia Bourne, 1900". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual...
Anthemiphylliidae is a family of corals belonging to the order Scleractinia. Genera: Anthemiphyllia Pourtalès, 1878 "Anthemiphylliidae". www.gbif.org....
Madreporaria were formerly applied universally to any stony coral of the family Scleractinia. They reproduce in three separate ways, as discovered by the marine zoologist...
them important coral reef builders like other stony corals in the order Scleractinia. Brain corals are found in shallow warm water coral reefs in all the...
Long Island Sound is a large marine estuary in the Northeastern United States. It forms the maritime border between New York's Long Island and Connecticut...
supplement of calcium and alkalinity for reef aquariums. Corals of order Scleractinia build their endoskeletons from aragonite (a polymorph of calcium carbonate)...
Guyniidae is a family of corals belonging to the order Scleractinia (hard corals). Genera: Bistylia Tenison-Woods, 1878 Cyathosmilia Tenison-Woods, 1878...
only a subset of coral-associated bacteria. Many corals in the order Scleractinia are hermatypic, meaning that they are involved in building reefs. Most...
skeleton made of calcite that is often fossilized. Like modern corals (Scleractinia), rugose corals were invariably benthic, living on the sea floor or in...
of several families within the formally accepted taxon Gorgoniidae (Scleractinia). These can be found in order Malacalcyonacea (taxonomic synonyms of...
Late Cretaceous (100–66 Ma) and Neogene (23 Ma–present), owing to order Scleractinia corals. Not all reefs in the past were formed by corals: those in the...
The Liquid Jungle Lab (LJL) is a tropical marine research station on the island of Canales de Tierra on the western coast of Pacific Panamá along a primary...
western Pacific Ocean Scleractinia Anacropora spp. Briar corals Native to the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean Scleractinia Ansonia mcgregori Endemic...
from the calcareous exoskeletons of marine invertebrates of the order Scleractinia (stony corals). These animals metabolize sugar and oxygen to obtain energy...
to genus: molecular phylogeny of Euphyllia and Fimbriaphyllia (order Scleractinia; family Euphyllidae; clade V)". PeerJ. 5: e4074. doi:10.7717/peerj.4074...
(May 2006). "The occurrence of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa (Scleractinia) on oil and gas platforms in the North Sea: Colony growth, recruitment...
Pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus) is a hard coral (order Scleractinia) found in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is the only species...
and as the calcareous endoskeleton of warm- and cold-water corals (Scleractinia). Several serpulids have aragonitic tubes. Because the mineral deposition...
Gardineriidae is a family of corals belonging to the order Scleractinia. Genera: Adkinsella Wells, 1933 Gardineria Vaughan, 1907 Stolarskicyathus Cairns...
made of calcium carbonate is found in subphylum Anthozoa in the order Scleractinia (stony corals; class Hexacorallia) and the class Octocorallia, and in...
(Cribrinopsis crassa) Clavularia crassa There are 290 species in the order Scleractinia assessed as least concern. Tooth coral (Balanophyllia europaea) Heteropsammia...
massive skeleton. This skeleton is formed of aragonite, similar to that of scleractinia. Individual polyps live in tubes within the skeleton and are connected...
are made of calcium carbonate. Additionally, reef-building corals, or Scleractinia, are calcareous organisms that form their rigid skeletal structure through...
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