 |
|
| hard corals text index | photo index |
| Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Zoantharia/Hexacorallia > Order Scleractinia > Family Mussidae |
| Grooved
brain coral Symphyllia sp.* Family Mussidae updated Oct 11 Where seen? This fleshy dome-shaped hard coral that resembles a brain is often seen on many of our Southern shores. Features: Colonies seen about 15-20cm, sometimes larger, hemispherical and rather flat. Walls are thick with prominent 'teeth', forming brain-like patterns with wide valleys (2-3cm wide). There is usually a slight dent or groove along the top of the wall. When submerged, the skeleton is covered with thick, fleshy tissue. The tentacles are usually only seen at night, and are numerous, short, slender with bulbous tips. Colours seen include brown, blue and green, often with contrasting coloured walls and valleys. Many seen had striking white portions. |
 With tentacles extended. Pulau Hantu, Apr 06 |
 With tentacles retracted. |
 With tentacles retracted, groove at the top of the walls. |
 |
Grooved brain corals on Singapore shores
 Sisters Island, Jul 04 |
 |
 |
 Pulau Hantu, Apr 06 |
 |
 |
 Sisters Island, Jul 07 |
 |
 |
 Raffles Lighthouse, Jul 06 |
 |
 |
 Raffles Lighthouse, Aug 06 |
 |
 |
more photos of grooved brain corals on Singapore shores
northern shores
southern shores part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8
*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.
| Symphyllia
species 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.
|
|
Links
|
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Australia. 3 volumes.
|
|