Three new species of Astreopora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) from West Papua

Occurrence Specimen
Latest version published by Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node on Mar 31, 2024 Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node
Publication date:
31 March 2024
License:
CC-BY 4.0

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Description

Three new species of Astreopora (Hexacorallia: Scleractinia: Acroporidae), from Cenderawasih Bay in West Papua, exhibit morphological innovations for this conservative genus, extant since the Cretaceous. Two species are fully branching, a condition never previously described for Astreopora: Astreopora cenderawasih sp. nov. has dendritic branching, also seen in the confamilial genus Montipora, whereas branches of A. acroporina sp. nov. possess an axial corallite, regarded as the key morphological innovation facilitating rapid diversification and dominance of reefs in the younger, confamilial and most diverse genus Acropora (staghorn corals). We propose that these novel characters may be parallelisms indicating deep familial homologies. The third species, Astreopora montiporina sp. nov., has expansive coenosteum, reminiscent of plating Montipora. The new species form part of the most species rich Astreopora assemblage reported to date, comprising 14 species. The unique tectonic and eustatic history of Cenderawasih Bay may have played a role in the evolution of these new species.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 12 records.

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How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Wallace C C, Turak E, DeVantier L (2024). Three new species of Astreopora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) from West Papua. Version 1.0. Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. Occurrence dataset. https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=papua_astreopora&v=1.0

Rights

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The publisher and rights holder of this work is Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

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Keywords

Occurrence; Specimen

Contacts

Carden C. Wallace
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Originator ●
  • Point Of Contact
  • Researcher
Museum of Tropical Queensland
  • 70-102 Flinders Street
4810 Townsville
QLD
AU
Emre Turak
  • Originator
  • Researcher
Museum of Tropical Queensland
  • 70-102 Flinders Street
4810 Townsville
QLD
AU
Lyndon DeVantier
  • Originator
  • Researcher
Museum of Tropical Queensland
  • 70-102 Flinders Street
4810 Townsville
QLD
AU

Geographic Coverage

Cenderawasih Bay in West Papua, Indonesia

Bounding Coordinates South West [-3.098, 134.563], North East [-1.732, 135.983]

Taxonomic Coverage

Astreopora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae)

Species Astreopora cenderawasih, Astreopora acroporina, Astreopora monteporina

Sampling Methods

In February 2006, a survey of coral species diversity (herein meaning richness per se, rather than a diversity index) was conducted at 33 sites, each comprising deep (10–40 m) and shallow (<10 m) components in this bay.

Study Extent Cenderawasih Bay, Papua, Indonesia

Method step description:

  1. Species present in each site were assessed by two 45-minute surveys conducted using SCUBA (cf DeVantier et al. 1998). All easily recognizable species of Astreopora were recorded. Unknown species and colonies that were difficult to identify in situ were photographed, and representative specimens were collected for microscopic examination at the Museum of Tropical Queensland (MTQ). Identifications made in the field were reassessed using binocular microscopy and reference to type and mentioned specimens of all Astreopora species in MTQ and some on loan, as well as descriptions in Lamberts (1980, 1982), Veron and Wallace (1984) and Veron (2000). For comparison of colony shapes with modern material, fossil types from Vaughan (1919) were examined and photographed in the United States Natural History Museum (NHNM) Washington DC in 2008 and 2009.

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Carden C. Wallace, Emre Turak & Lyndon DeVantier (2011) Novel characters in a conservative coral genus: three new species of Astreopora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) from West Papua, Journal of Natural History, 45:31-32, 1905-1924 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2011.573098

Additional Metadata

marine, harvested by iOBIS

Alternative Identifiers https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=papua_astreopora