Scleractinian corals may be solitary or colonial. Colonies can reach considerable size, consisting of a large … See more

Stony corals occur in all the world's oceans. There are two main ecological groups. Hermatypic corals are mostly colonial corals which tend to live in clear, oligotrophic, shallow tropical waters; they are the world's primary … See more

Scleractinians fall into one of two main categories:
• Reef-forming or hermatypic corals, which mostly contain zooxanthellae;
• Non-reef-forming or ahermatypic corals, which mostly do n… See more

Stony corals have a great range of reproductive strategies and can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Many species have separate sexes, the whole colony being either male or female, but others are hermaphro… See more

There is little evidence on which to base a hypothesis about the origin of the scleractinians; plenty is known about modern species but very little about fossil specimens, which first appeared in the record in the … See more

The taxonomy of Scleractinia is particularly challenging. Many species were described before the advent of scuba diving, with little realisation by the authors that coral species could have varying morphologies in different ha… See more