Pseudodiploria strigosa

Appearance

The coral has symbiotic dinoflagellate alga called zooxanthella in its tissues and it is these that give the coral its colour of yellowish or greenish brown, or occasionally blue-grey. The valleys are often a paler or contrasting colour.

Range and habitat

It is probably the most widespread of the brain corals and not only occurs on reefs but also sometimes on muddy stretches of seabed where not many other corals flourish. The fossilised remains of Pseudodiploria strigosa have been found alongside those of other massive corals, Pseudodiploria clivosa, Siderastrea siderea and Solenastrea bouroni, in marine deposits in Río Grande de Manatí, Puerto Rico that date back to the Pleistocene. It occurs on reefs in shallow water in the West Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

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.

Pseudodiploria strigosa 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 English Wikipedia article on Pseudodiploria strigosa, Wikidata item Q14191622. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.