Balanophyllia elegans

Balanophyllia elegans, the orange coral or orange cup coral, is a species of solitary cup coral, a stony coral in the family Dendrophylliidae. It is native to the eastern Pacific Ocean. As an azooxanthellate species, it does not contain symbiotic dinoflagellates in its tissues in the way that most corals do.

Balanophyllia elegans

Steve Lonhart / NOAA MBNMS · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
orange cup coralPBDB
Sits inside
BalanophylliaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Balanophyllia
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunal, colonial, clonalPBDB, for Scleractinia
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Scleractinia
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
Environment
marinePBDB, for Scleractinia

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 17 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 17 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 15 of 17 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 17 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

17 occurrences of Balanophyllia elegans on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

17 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Unnamed — 33.24°N, 119.51°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.55°WSan Diego — 32.54°N, 117.11°WSan Pedro Sand — 33.73°N, 118.33°WPico — 34.36°N, 118.56°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Balanophyllia elegans has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Balanophyllia elegans and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Balanophyllia elegans and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

393 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Balanophyllia elegans, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

8 references

Each of the 17 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Balanophyllia elegans

Credit
Steve Lonhart / NOAA MBNMS
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Balanophyllia elegans was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itBalanophyllia through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Verrill 1864