Australian Museum Journal The scleractinian coral Archohella living on the coastal shores of Queensland, Australia
- Shortform:
- Wells and Alderslade, 1979, Rec. Aust. Mus. 32(5): 211–216
- Author(s):
- Wells, J. W.; Alderslade, Phil
- Year published:
- 1979
- Title:
- The scleractinian coral Archohella living on the coastal shores of Queensland, Australia
- Serial title:
- Records of the Australian Museum
- Volume:
- 32
- Issue:
- 5
- Start page:
- 211
- End page:
- 216
- DOI:
- 10.3853/j.0067-1975.32.1979.456
- Language:
- English
- Date published:
- 30 July 1979
- Cover date:
- 30 July 1979
- ISSN:
- 0067-1975
- CODEN:
- RAUMAJ
- Publisher:
- The Australian Museum
- Place published:
- Sydney, Australia
- Subjects:
- CORAL; ECOLOGY
- Digitized:
- 19 January 2009
- Available online:
- 03 March 2009
- Reference number:
- 456
- EndNote package:
- EndNote file
- Title page:
- Title page (82kb PDF)
- Complete work:
- Complete work (843kb PDF)
Abstract
Live colonies of the oculinid genus Archohelia Vaughan, previously known only from the fossil records of the West Indies and Central and North America, have been discovered in shallow water off Rat Island on the coast of Central Queensland, Australia.
Archohelia rediviva n. sp. differs from the genotype A. fimonensis in having the tertiary septa regularly fused to the six secondary septa. The small white colonies of A. rediviva with branches up to 10 cm long grow more or less erectly from thin encrusting bases. They occur in 3.5 metres of sheltered, turbid water by the shoreline of a rocky island having no fringing coral reef. The coral is subject to strong tidal currents and large changes in salinity.
There are no hints as to the provenance of this coral from the other occurrences of this genus or Oculina in Australia.