Goniopora, de Blainville, 1830

Salimi, Parisa Alidoost, Mostafavi, Pargol Ghavam, Chen, Chaolun Allen, Fatemi, Seyed Mohammad Reza & Pichon, Michel, 2018, Microphysogobio bicolor, Zoological Studies 57 (56), pp. 1-34 : 27

Goniopora djiboutiensis Vaughan, 1907

( Fig. 25 )

Synonym: Goniopora djiboutiensis Vaghan 1907; Goniopora pulvinella Wells, 1954.

Material examined: Sirri Island ( ZUTC 6628).

Description: Colony is thick encrusting to submassive. Corallites are circular to polygonal and formation extratentacular budding. Corallite diameter is 5 mm. Corallites depth 2-3 mm. Septa regularly arranged in 24 septa (up to 36 in larger corallites). Gonioporoid arrangement pattern in most of septa equal and short, only projecting inwards into the calice to a limited extent, but 6-8 of them reach the columella. Free margins serrated and sides highly perforated at times ornamented with clearly visible short protuberances. Columella is well developed, spongy and dome-shaped. Wall is synapticular, a porous fenestrate meshwork of ragged appearance and thickness variable.

Remarks: The specimen displays some affinities with G. stokesi, Milne Edwards and Haime, 1851, in particular with respect to the depth of the calices and very fenestrate wall. It is ascribed here to G. djiboutiensis on the basis of the regularly arranged short septa, while the 6 primaries are conspicuous in reaching the columella, and of a dome-shaped columella.

Distribution: Rare in the Persian Gulf.

Figures

Fig. 25. Goniopora djiboutiensis from Sirri Island; (a) extratentacular budding; (b) close-up of corallites. Scale bar = 1 mm.