Critically Endangered
Brazilian maze coral
Meandrina brasiliensis
Brazilian maze coral is a stony coral in the family Meandrinidae (order Scleractinia) — Meandrina brasiliensis, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to Brazil, Dominican Republic, and Bahamas.
Appearance
Deeper colonies have more delicate septa than forms that inhabit shallow waters. All inhabiting clean and protected waters, with horizontal substrates or debris made of shells, calcareous algae and pieces of coral. In life, its polyps are brown or yellowish-brown in color.
Range and habitat
It inhabits reef bottoms in the western Atlantic Ocean, between two and 60 meters deep, and is endemic to the coast of Brazil. Ecology According to a text published by the Federal University of Bahia, this species of coral has colonies with shapes that are approximately hemispherical and low, or elliptical and elongated. With two characteristic morphological variationsː one free from the substrate, living in very shallow waters (between 2 and 4 meters deep) or even at greater depths (from 30 to 60 meters), and another form, fixed to the reef substrate.
GBIF currently lists 1,023 occurrence points. Those points follow where people logged the taxon — museum drawers and surveys included — not a closed range boundary.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Habits
A stony-coral colony is fixed. Growth, bleaching, and death happen in place. Collection and gear damage remove the skeleton as well as the tissue.
The colony stays where it settled. Water quality, light, and a stable bottom decide whether tissue remains on the skeleton.
In crisis
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Warm-water bleaching, sedimentation, destructive fishing, and the curio trade sit behind many stony-coral badges. That is the group backdrop — confirm the official criteria for this name on the Red List.
Brazilian maze coral is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the Portuguese Wikipedia article on Pedra-de-iemanjá, translated and retold in English, plus Wikidata item Q57395661 and GBIF occurrence geography. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Confirm status and range on iucnredlist.org.
