hard corals text index | photo index
Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Zoantharia/Hexacorallia > Order Scleractinia
Dendrophyllid corals
Family Dendrophylliidae
updated Nov 11

Where seen? Disk corals (Turbinaria spp.) are among our most commonly encountered hard corals and seen on many of our Southern shores and even some Northern shores. Cave corals (Tubastrea sp.) are small hard corals usually seen in dark places.

Only Turbinaria is commonly considered reef-building. Disk corals (Turbinaria spp.) are among the most commonly encountered of this family on Singapore's intertidal shores. They may be flat plates which may be folded into vase-shapes or lettuce-like forms. They may also be encrusting. Some can be large (20-50cm).

Dendrophyllia species are similiar in appearance and habits to Tubastrea species. These corals form small colonies (2-4cm).

Status and threats: Some corals of the Family Dendrophylliidae recorded for Singapore are listed as globally threatened by the IUCN. Like other creatures of the intertidal zone, they are affected by human activities such as reclamation and pollution. Trampling by careless visitors, and over-collection also have an impact on local populations.

Family Dendrophyllidae recorded for Singapore
from Danwei Huang, Karenne P. P. Tun, L. M Chou and Peter A. Todd. 30 Dec 2009. An inventory of zooxanthellate sclerectinian corals in Singapore including 33 new records **the species found on many shores in Danwei's paper.
in red are those listed as threatened on the IUCN global list.

*
from Wee Y.C. and Peter K. L. Ng. 1994. A First Look at Biodiversity in Singapore.

  Family Dendrophyllidae
  *Cave corals (Dendrophyllia and Tubastraea species) with list of species recorded for Singapore

Turbinaria sp. (Disk corals) with list of species recorded for Singapore.

Links

  • Family Dendrophylliidae (select species from list) on Corals of the World online on the Australian Institute of Marine Science website: Technical fact sheet.
  • Family Dendrophylliidae on Reef Corals of the Indo-Malayan Seas, the Marine Species Identification Portal: Technical fact sheet.
  • Family Dendrophylliidae (enter Dendrophylliidae in search bar) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species website: Technical fact sheet.

References

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