Montastraea

Montastraea is a genus of colonial stony coral found in the Caribbean seas. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Montastraeidae and contains a single species, Montastraea cavernosa, known as great star coral. It forms into massive boulders and sometimes develops into plates. Its polyps are the size of a human thumb and fully extend at night.

Montastraea

Uncredited · 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
Sits inside
MontastraeidaePBDB
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 119 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 17 of 838 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 18 of 838 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 838 occurrencesEocene — about 30 of 838 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 101 of 838 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 278 of 838 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 73 of 838 occurrencesPleistocene — about 299 of 838 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 3 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 4 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 4 occurrences111–107 Mya — about 3 occurrences107–103 Mya — about 1 occurrence103–98 Mya — about 2 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 3 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 2 occurrences90–86 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 4 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 2 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 1 occurrence68–64 Mya — about 1 occurrence64–60 Mya — about 1 occurrence60–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 3 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 4 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 6 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 14 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 22 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 39 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 72 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 69 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 75 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 49 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 79 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 366 occurrences119.57 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

838 occurrences of Montastraea 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

838 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

125 formations

Moin — 9.97°N, 83.05°WMoin — 10.00°N, 83.03°WValiente — 9.13°N, 81.90°WValiente — 9.15°N, 81.94°WGurabo — 19.53°N, 71.30°WGurabo — 19.50°N, 71.18°WGurabo — 19.30°N, 71.67°WGurabo — 19.45°N, 71.07°WGurabo — 19.40°N, 70.72°WGurabo — 18.92°N, 71.62°WAnguilla — 18.23°N, 63.07°WIronshore — 19.65°N, 80.10°WIronshore — 19.32°N, 81.37°WIronshore — 19.37°N, 81.37°WIronshore — 19.35°N, 81.08°WIronshore — 19.27°N, 81.33°WIronshore — 19.28°N, 81.15°WCulebra — 9.07°N, 79.68°WCulebra — 9.13°N, 79.62°WCulebra — 9.76°N, 79.68°WQuebrada Chocolate — 9.98°N, 83.08°WTamana — 10.39°N, 61.29°WTamana — 10.22°N, 61.37°WTamana — 10.33°N, 61.43°WTamana — 10.33°N, 62.42°WTamana — 10.47°N, 61.22°WTamana — 10.42°N, 61.13°WHato — 12.28°N, 69.07°WHato — 12.37°N, 69.10°WHato — 12.23°N, 69.02°WHato — 12.13°N, 68.98°WHato — 12.20°N, 69.08°WOld Bank — 9.32°N, 82.11°WCercado — 19.67°N, 71.40°WCercado — 19.53°N, 71.18°WCercado — 19.45°N, 71.08°WCercado — 19.53°N, 71.30°WSiamaná — 12.07°N, 71.44°WSiamaná — 12.03°N, 71.42°WSiamaná — 11.83°N, 71.40°WIsla Colon — 9.37°N, 82.23°WIsla Colon — 9.42°N, 82.32°WIsla Colon — 9.30°N, 82.10°WSan Luis — 12.50°N, 81.72°WSan Luis — 12.57°N, 81.72°WSalcedo — 45.77°N, 11.60°EAntigua — 17.03°N, 61.68°WAntigua — 17.12°N, 61.80°WAntigua — 17.07°N, 61.73°WCastelgomberto — 45.58°N, 11.38°ECastelgomberto — 45.55°N, 11.38°ECastelgomberto — 45.52°N, 11.48°ERudeis — 27.30°N, 33.58°ERudeis — 27.62°N, 33.37°ERudeis — 26.08°N, 34.22°ERudeis — 25.95°N, 34.30°ERudeis — 25.50°N, 34.65°ERudeis — 29.12°N, 33.22°EMoneague — 18.40°N, 77.37°WMoneague — 17.95°N, 77.38°WBaitoa — 19.35°N, 70.72°WRio Gurabo — 19.50°N, 71.18°WMao — 19.55°N, 71.27°WMao — 19.52°N, 71.13°WMao — 19.57°N, 71.28°WMao — 19.53°N, 71.18°WSan Andres — 12.53°N, 81.70°WCastro Limestone — 40.02°N, 18.43°ECastro Limestone — 39.85°N, 18.38°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Montastraea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 101 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 168 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Montastraea and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Montastraea and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,649 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 315 sites for Montastraea, and this reads 240 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

183 references

Each of the 838 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. 171 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 content3

Picture of Montastraea

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
MONTASTRAEA sp. · UF:IP:107080

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itMontastraeidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Blainville 1830