Isophyllia Explained

Isophyllia is a genus of stony coral in the subfamily Mussinae of the family Mussidae.

Characteristics

Isophyllia is a colonial coral. Budding is always intracalicular, occurring inside the oral disc of the polyp, within the whorl of tentacles. The corallites are meandroid, that is, they are linked in a short series of up to five centres. The individual corallites are medium-sized, being 2.5to in diameter and up to 61NaN1 high. There are three or more cycles of septa in each corallite, all equal in size. A narrow costate coenosteum separates the corallites.^[1]

Species

The World Register of Marine Species lists the following species :

• Isophyllia rigida (Dana, 1848)
• Isophyllia sinuosa (Ellis & Solander, 1786)

Notes and References

1. Budd, Ann F. . Fukami, Hironobu . Smith, Nathan D. . Knowlton, Nancy . 2012 . Taxonomic classification of the reef coral family Mussidae (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Scleractinia) . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . 166 . 3 . 465–529 . 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2012.00855.x . free .