Species Conopora verrucosa (Studer, 1878)

<i>Conopora verrucosa</I> cyclosystem image from Cairns (1983).

Conopora verrucosa cyclosystem image from Cairns (1983).

<I>Conopora verrucosa</I> double chamber image from Cairns (1983).

Conopora verrucosa double chamber image from Cairns (1983).

<I>Conopora verrucosa</I> branch fragment image (photo credit N. Bax).

Conopora verrucosa branch fragment image (photo credit N. Bax).

Fig. 36 from Cairns (1983)

Figure 2 from Lindner et al (2008). Phylogenetic relationships of stylasterid corals and multiple invasions of shallow waters.

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Species Conopora verrucosa (Studer, 1878)

Hydrocoral, Lace Coral

Stylaster verrucosus Studer, T. 1878. Uebersicht der Steinkorallen aus der Familie der Madreporaria aporosa, Eupsammina und Turbinarina, welche auf der Reise S.M.S. "Gazelle" um die Erde gesammelt wurden. Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 625-655, pls 1-4.
Conopora major Hickson & England, 1905.
Conopora pauciseptata Broch, 1950.

Generic Combinations

Conopora verrucosa (Studer, 1878).

Introduction

The geographic distribution of Conopora verrucosa includes the Australian Antarctic Territory in East Antarctica (Bax and Cairns, 2014). This species is found across a broad depth range (~198 - 2355 m), and the limited documentation of C. verrucosa may reflect a lack of sampling at great depths around Antarctica.

Conopora verrucosa has a distinct cyclosystem structure (Cairns, 1983b), and its cladistic placement based on genetics and morphology is discussed in Bax (2015) where the following conclusions are highlighted as important to the evolution of stylasterid corals:

Stylasterid fossils can be traced back to the late Cretaceous 65 million years ago. The oldest known stylasterid appears to be Conopora (Jell et al., 2011), and the earliest Antarctic fossil is Conopora mariae, dated to the Eocene ~ 50 million years ago (Stolarski, 1998). The Lindner et al., (2008) genetic phylogeny is composed of three distinct clades. Clade (1) contains double-chambered cyclosystemate species, including Conopora species which lack a gastrostyle, Plibothrus spp. with no observed gastrostyle (Cairns, 1983a) and Lepidopora microstylus, which in contrast to the other two genera has a rudimentary gastrostyle (Lindner et al., 2008). Clade (2) contains Stylaster species (with both cyclosystems and gastrostyles). Clade (3) contains the other stylasterid taxa (some cyclosystemate and some not). This suggests that the common ancestor to all stylasterid clades had cyclosystems. This genetic information, combined with the fossil record, indicates that the placement of Conopora as basal in genetic phylogenies in Lindner et al. (2008) and Bax (2015), is a parsimonious conclusion.