Coral species

Not sure if coral classifies as 'critter' but they are animals, right?

According to our local dive guide, the coral on this picture is a rare species of Scolymia. From comparing it to other coral pictures on the internet, it is more similar to Caulastrea. However I'm not a biologist, so anyone who has an idea, don't hesitate to post some comments.

Here's the link to the pic:

http://www.pbase.com/image/22324344/medium

Looks like you need to pay Pbase your $23 so you can hotlink your pix...:-)

Yes, those are definitely Scolymia sp corals. They are solitary corals that have a single polyp not conjoined w/ others.

A Caulastera is a branching large polyped coral where tissue runs throughout connecting the branches inside the skeleton. The two polyps DO look very similar though, but the Scolymia are much bigger (usually 3 or 3 inches in diameter) compared to 1" for the Caulastera.

HTH

James

Looks like you need to pay Pbase your $23 so you can hotlink your pix...:-)

Thanks James,

I am a paying Pbase supporter, but the hotlink seems to work only intermittently. Maybe this is because of timing issues between web client-Wetpixel server-pbase server, or more probably because I used a bad URL.