Critically Endangered
Mussismilia leptophylla
Mussismilia leptophylla
Mussismilia leptophylla is a brain coral in the family Faviidae (order Scleractinia), recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to Brazil, Sudan, and South Africa.
The brain coral
Brain and maze corals in this group grow as mounds or plates with valleys of polyps. The pattern is the skeleton, not a paint job.
Stony corals secrete a hard calcium-carbonate skeleton. A named ‘species’ on a reef is a colony of polyps, often hosting zooxanthellae that need sunlit, relatively clear water.
Range and habitat
The species occurs in Brazil and is classified as 'uncertain' on the IUCN Red List.
GBIF currently lists 756 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
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.
Mussismilia leptophylla 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 Dutch Wikipedia article on Mussismilia leptophylla, translated and retold in English, plus Wikidata item Q66926701 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.
