''Favites'' is a genus of

stony corals Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mo ...

in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the

Line Islands The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands (in Gilbertese, ''Aono Raina'') are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawa ...

and the Tuamotu Islands.

Characteristics

Colonies can be encrusting but are usually massive and dome-shaped. The

corallite A corallite is the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits and into which it can retract. The cup is composed of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and is secreted by the polyp. Corallit ...

s are mostly cerioid (sharing a common wall), but some are plocoid (with an individual wall) and the palliform lobes are indistinct, which distinguishes these corals from the otherwise similar '' Goniastrea''.

Species

The following species are currently recognized by the World Register of Marine Species : *'' Favites abdita'' (Ellis & Solander, 1786) *'' Favites acuticollis'' (Ortmann, 1889) *'' Favites chinensis'' (Verrill, 1866) *''

Favites colemani ''Favites'' is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the Line I ...

'' (Veron, 2000) *''

Favites complanata ''Favites complanata'' is a species of stony coral in the family Merulinidae, sometimes known as the larger star coral. It is native to the Indo-Pacific region and its range extends from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean to the western and central Pac ...

'' (Ehrenberg, 1834) *''

Favites favosa ''Favites'' is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the Line I ...

'' (Ellis & Solander, 1786) *''

Favites flexuosa ''Favites'' is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the Line I ...

'' (Dana, 1846) *''

Favites halicora ''Favites halicora'' is a species of coral belonging to the family Merulinidae. The species was first described in 1834 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (19 April 1795 – 27 June 1876) was a German naturalist, z ...

'' (Ehrenberg, 1834) *''

Favites magnistellata ''Favites'' is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the Line I ...

'' (Chevalier, 1971) *''

Favites melicerum ''Favites'' is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the Line I ...

'' (Ehrenberg, 1834) *''

Favites micropentagonus ''Favites'' is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the Line I ...

'' Veron, 2000 *''

Favites monticularis ''Favites'' is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the Line I ...

'' Mondal, Raghunathan & Venkataraman, 2013 *'' Favites paraflexuosus'' Veron, 2000 *'' Favites pentagona'' (Esper, 1795) *'' Favites rotundata'' Veron, Pichon & Wijsman-Best, 1977 *'' Favites solidocolumellae'' Latypov, 2006 *''

Favites spinosa ''Favites spinosa'' is a species of stony coral in the family Merulinidae. It is native to the Indo-Pacific region, its range extending from the eastern coast of Africa through the Indian Ocean to the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. Descripti ...

'' (Klunzinger, 1879) *'' Favites stylifera'' Yabe & Sugiyama, 1937 *''

Favites valenciennesi ''Favites valenciennesi'' is a species of stony coral in the family Merulinidae. It is native to the Indo-Pacific region and its range extends from Madagascar through the Indian Ocean to the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. This is a genera ...

'' (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1849) *'' Favites vasta'' (Klunzinger, 1879) Faviidae - Favites species

Fossil record

Fossils of ''Favites'' are found in marine strata from the Jurassic to the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

(age range: from 161.2 to 0.0 million years ago.). Fossils are known from many localities in Europe, Indonesia, Philippines, Africa, North America, South America, Pakistan, Japan and India. The Paleobiology Database
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References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3948799 Merulinidae Scleractinia genera