Orbicella annularis - Earth.com
orbicella annularis
12-22-2016

Orbicella annularis

Orbicella annularis NatureServe Explorer Species Reports — NatureServe Explorer is a source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals and ecological communtities of the U.S and Canada. NatureServe Explorer provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too. NatureServe Explorer is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with the Natural Heritage Network.

FWS Digital Media Library — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Digital Library is a searchable collection of selected images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and video. 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. It also has a comprehensive fossil record within the Caribbean. This species complex has long been considered a generalist that exists at depths between 0 and 80 meters that grew into varying colony shapes in response to differing light conditions. Only recently with the help of molecular techniques has O. annularis been shown to be a complex of at least three separate species. Those species are divided into O. annularis, O. faveolata, and O. franksi. This coral was originally described as Montastraea annularis.

Detailed information
Full Name: Lobed Star Coral (Orbicella annularis)
Where found: Wherever found
Critical Habitat:N/A
Species Group:Corals
Current listing status
Status Date Listed Lead Region Where Listed
Threatened 11/13/2014 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Wherever found
Federal register documents
Date
Citation Page
Title
11/13/2014 79 FR 67356 67359 Adding 20 Coral Species to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife
Recovery
No recovery information is available for the Lobed Star Coral.
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