hard corals text index | photo index
Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Zoantharia/Hexacorallia > Order Scleractinia > Family Faviidae
Hedgehog corals
Echinopora sp.*
Family Faviidae

updated Nov 11

Where seen? These delicate plate hard corals with little bumps are rarely encountered, so far only on our undisturbed Southern islands.

Features: Colonies 20-30cm. May be boulder-shaped, branching or form plates. Those seen were mostly encrusting thin plates often with wavy edges. Small corallites (less than 0.5cm) that form prickly bumps with characteristic prickly ridges in the spaces between the corallites. Polyp tentacles are only extended at night. Colours seen include brown, yellow, blue and purple.

Status and threats: Some of the Hedgehog corals recorded for Singapore are listed as globally Near 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.

Raffles Lighthouse, Jul 06

Raffles Lighthouse, Jul 06

Hedgehog corals on Singapore Shores


Raffles Lighthouse, May 04


Terumbu Raya, Jul 11


Pulau Semakau, Aug 08


Raffles Lighthouse, Aug 06

more photos of hedgehog corals on Singapore shores
part 1 | part 2 | part 3

*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.

Echinopora species recorded for Singapore
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.


  Family Faviidae
Genus Echinopora
  Echinopora gemmacea**
Echinopora hirsutissima
Echinopora horrida
(Near Threatened)
Echinopora lamellosa**
Echinopora pacificus**
(Near Threatened)

Links

References

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