Echinophyllia

Echinophyllia is a genus of large polyp stony corals. Members of this genus are colonial corals and are generally foliaceous, usually with very thin leaves. They are native to the Indo-Pacific and are sometimes found in reef aquariums.

Echinophyllia

Francesca Benzoni · CC BY 3.0 · 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
Sits inside
LobophylliidaePBDB
Diet
microcarnivore, photosymbioticPBDB, for Scleractinia
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 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 40 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 40 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 40 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 40 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 8 of 40 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 40 occurrencesPleistocene — about 18 of 40 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–11 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 27 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

40 occurrences of Echinophyllia 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

40 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

8 formations

Ghasr Ghand — 26.50°N, 60.00°ENuma — 34.97°N, 139.83°ESalayar — 6.18°S, 120.43°EDarkhunish — 26.53°N, 57.58°EEra Beds — 8.35°S, 146.28°ENabire — 3.60°S, 135.52°EMegami — 34.68°N, 138.20°ESobe — 26.39°N, 127.73°E

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The named rock units Echinophyllia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 29 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Echinophyllia and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Echinophyllia and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

319 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Echinophyllia, 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

27 references

Each of the 40 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. 15 further references are not listed. 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 content2

Picture of Echinophyllia

Credit
Francesca Benzoni
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itLobophylliidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Klunzinger 1879