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| hard corals text index | photo index |
| Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Zoantharia/Hexacorallia > Order Scleractinia > Family Merulinidae > Hydnophora sp. |
| Boulder
horn coral Hydnophora exesa* Family Merulinidae updated Nov 11 Where seen? This boulder-shaped hard coral with conical bumps are sometimes seen on our Southern shores. Features: Colonies (15-20cm, sometimes much larger), boulder-shaped with irregular lumps and hillocks. The unique feature of the Hydnophora corals are the small conical mounds (0.5cm or smaller), called monticules (also hydnae or hydnophores), that form where the corallite walls of adjacent polyps fuse together. In these boulder-shaped colonies, monticules are usually not conical but long, forming valleys along the surface of the colony. Polyps have short blunt tentacles that surround the base of each monticule. The skeleton is hidden when the tentacles are expanded. Colours seen include brown, green and blue. |
 Pulau Hantu, Apr 06 |
 Polyp mouths between the monticules. |
 Tentacles surround the monticules. |
 Long conical mounds called monticules. |
Boulder horn corals on Singapore shores
 Pulau Hantu, Apr 06 |
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 Pulau Hantu, Jan 10 |
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 Cyrene Reef, May 08 |
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more photos of boulder horn corals on Singapore shores
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7
*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.
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Links
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Australian Institute of Marine Science, Australia. 3 volumes.
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