Turbinaria radicalis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Turbinaria radicalis | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Cnidaria |
| Subphylum: | Anthozoa |
| Class: | Hexacorallia |
| Order: | Scleractinia |
| Family: | Dendrophylliidae |
| Genus: | Turbinaria |
| Species: | T. radicalis |
| Binomial name | |
| Turbinaria radicalis Bernard, 1896 [2] | |
Turbinaria radicalis, also known as disc coral, is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Dendrophylliidae. It is native to the central Indo-Pacific, tropical and sub-tropical Australia, the South China Sea, northern Australia and the West Pacific. It is a zooxanthellate coral that houses symbiont dinoflagellates in its tissues. It is a rare coral throughout its range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being "near-threatened".[1]
Colonies of Turbinaria radicalis are encrusting and spread over rocks or have rootlets growing down into the substrate. The surface of the coral is smooth, and the corallites may be sunken or raised on shallow cones. They tend to be aligned in irregular rows. This coral is usually greenish-brown, pale or dark brown with contrasting pale corallites.[3]