Heliopora sp. indet.

Fassbender, Nico, Stefanoudis, Paris V, Filander, Zoleka Nontlantla, Gendron, Gilberte, Mah, Christopher L, Mattio, Lydiane, Mortimer, Jeanne A, Moura, Carlos J, Samaai, Toufiek, Samimi-Namin, Kaveh, Wagner, Daniel, Walton, Rowana & Woodall, Lucy C, 2021, Reef benthos of Seychelles - A field guide, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 65970-65970 : 65970

Heliopora sp. indet.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Taxon: scientificName: Heliopora; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Cnidaria; class: Anthozoa; order: Helioporacea; family: Helioporidae; genus: Heliopora; scientificNameAuthorship: de Blainville, 1830; Location: waterBody: Indian Ocean; country: Seychelles; locality: Aldabra N 1, Aldabra W 1, Alphonse N 1, Astove W 1, Poivre E 1 ; minimumDepthInMeters: 8.8 m; maximumDepthInMeters: 25.9 m; locationRemarks: First Descent : Seychelles Expedition ; Identification : identifiedBy: Nico Fassbender , Kaveh Samimi-Namin , Paris Stefanoudis ; dateIdentified: 2019, 2020; identificationRemarks: identified only from imagery; Event : samplingProtocol: Submersible OR Remotely Operated Vehicle OR SCUBA; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Human observation

Notes

Colonies are columnar, plating or branching. Maximum recorded size: 60 cm across. As the only octocoral genus with a massive aragonite skeleton, it is often mistaken for a scleractinian coral. However, its colonies have a unique blue to green colouration with large pore-like polyps of white colour that are often visible, both in-situ and on video footage (Fig. 73).