Goniopora columna
Goniopora columna is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Poritidae.

Hectonichus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
- GonioporaPBDB
- Diet
- photosymbiotic, suspension feederPBDB, for Poritidae
- Life habit
- colonial, clonalPBDB, for Poritidae
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Poritidae
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Poritidae
Time the record covers
At least 5.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka.
3 occurrences of Goniopora columna 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
3 occurrences- Miocene33%
- Pleistocene67%
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
1 formation
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Goniopora columna has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Goniopora columna and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Goniopora columna and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
The Paleobiology Database records no fossil sites for Goniopora columna, so there is nothing to compare it with.
Entered from
2 references- Evolutionary dynamics of Indo-Pacific reef corals throughout the Neogene2
- Stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and model for the deposition of the Abdur Reef Limestone: context for an important archaeological site from the last interglacial on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea1
Each of the 3 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 content2
Picture of Goniopora columna
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Hectonichus
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC0 Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows 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 itGoniopora through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dana 1846